By: Mohammed Ibrahim. I have borrowed the title of this article from the theme for this year’s National service week celebration. There is no denying that a strong sense of patriotism is needed at this stage of our national development. And I believe the spirit of volunteerism is a crucial aspect of patriotism. This is why I consider the theme for this year’s celebration as very timely. Any careful observer cannot fail to realize that the giant economies of today have something in common; the spirit of volunteerism among their citizens, especially the youth. Ghana continues to receive support from the U.S Peace Corp and the Japanese volunteers, among many others. The massive assistance from Cuban doctors who are ever willing to serve at the most remote areas of our country is testimony to the need to rekindle our sense of volunteerism. Thus, in 1973 when the National Service Scheme was established, the general expectation was that it would harness “available resources to enable targeted young people, to become more educated and better prepared for national issues requiring urgent attention.” It was anticipated that this would be done “through national service activities in deprived areas, within reasonable congenial conditions,” (emphasis mine). The specific objectives of the Scheme were:

1. To provide trained manpower to supplement and improve existing levels of manpower in mainly the public sector;
2. To provide personnel for rural development and community action; and
3. To provide individual youth with: re-orientation, introduction to vigorous work culture etc.

Given the above, coupled with the fact that the Scheme “aims at instilling in the youth the sense and spirit of nation building and integration through positive programmes”, it makes sense to assume that the youth would patronize the scheme in order to provide support for the often neglected and needy areas of the country. In other words, the need for a spirit of volunteerism, therefore, becomes instructive on numerous counts. However, our efforts at rekindling the spirit of volunteerism would continue to be a pie in the sky if we remain indifferent to the conditions of personnel. This is because although it may sound pleasing to the ears to count all the potential benefits of volunteerism, it is also imperative to put the necessary conditions in place to enhance that spirit. Over the years, the series of problems that National Service persons continue to face have even led to some cynics making a parody of the name that it is rather a National Suffering. Whilst it is important for potential personnel to know that they owe a service to society for having given them their education, it is also important for society to create the enabling environment for them to know that at least their efforts are appreciated. Hence, the institution(s) put in place to oversee the affairs of the NSS should consider the welfare of every volunteer as paramount. Regrettably, some developments over the years have proved otherwise. In 2007 for instance, it was reported in the media that most National Service Persons had been denied their October allowance. The explanation was that those personnel had not reported to their places of posting on time. But the fact was that the personnel had not been able to do so because of problems with the new computerized posting. Those who had travelled long distances to register had been told that they could not do so because a second posting was being done to address the problem. The argument could be made that since the Secretariat had informed potential personnel that they would start the service in October of that year, they (the potential personnel) could not have engaged in any meaningful income generating activity at the time since the postings would have truncated such activity. Was it, therefore, fair for the Secretariat to have added insult to injury by denying them their allowances? Were the personnel to blame for the technical failure or dereliction of duty? Another disincentive to the spirit of volunteerism is the apparent preferential treatment during postings. The computerized system was meant to address this problem. However, even the most casual observer cannot fail to realize that some people secure their places of service before they even graduate from school. Others are also given the option of choosing perceived better places in big towns and cities. But come to think of it, the problem of preferential treatment harms the nation in more ways than most people have observed. In an era when we are advocating national integration, it does not make sense for one who was born, bred and educated in Accra for instance, to influence the Secretariat into manipulating the postings, on the flimsy excuse that they do not want to work away from home, as if other potential personnel were purposely trained for that. It must also be borne in mind that the graduates of today who engage in the voluntary national service are those who would contribute to development policy formulation in future. What kind of experience would guide them if they spend all their life in big cities or their home Regions? Lamenting the situation, a Member of Parliament once noted in 1980 that “a major cause of our problems is that people in responsible positions in Ghana today do not know the country”. He added accordingly that “there are people in the Ministry of (Finance and) Economic Planning who do not know where the basic resources from which we make our money to implement our economic programmes…come from…I wonder how many of our Ministers and Members of Parliament know the conditions that exist in the richest parts of Western Region where we make most of our timber revenue…” The MP then recommended that the “…National service scheme should also have the aim of getting young men and women to know the appalling conditions existing in various parts of the country.” The observation of the MP reminds us that there are some things that we can never learn from books. We should, therefore, be prepared to travel to, work with and improve upon the lives of other more deprived Ghanaians. That is the essence of volunteerism. Those in charge of the National Service Scheme must bear in mind that an overwhelming majority of potential volunteers fall in their domain, and so the success of any attempt at rekindling the spirit of volunteerism mostly rests with them. Additionally, the corporate world has a responsibility towards reviving the spirit of volunteerism. We are all aware that every year, over 70% of National Service persons have to be posted to the classrooms because teachers are in short supply. Yet, the corporate world has painfully discounted teaching as a job experience. In the end, graduate volunteers are rendered miserable in search of employment after service to society. Related to the above, the corporate world has never failed to reiterate that today’s graduates are less equipped for the job market. The impression is that students and academic institutions alone are to blame. Of course, I admit that the chew, pour and pass system in most institutions is not helping the country. Again, for some students their aspirations died before they were even born. But do the corporate entities even have the moral justification to bemoan the supposed sorry state of affairs when they rather choose to spend their monies on beauty pageants, foreign Telenovelas and other programmes of entertainment all in the name of giving back to society? If they are concerned with getting the right people to employ, then they should complement the efforts of the government, educational institutions and other stakeholders to clean the libraries of archaic books and furnish them with current reading materials. The corporate world should also help the Universities and Polytechniques to provide decent accommodation and lecture facilities for students. After all, Ghanaian students elsewhere have proved that when given the opportunity, they are capable of performing better. The spirit of volunteering must of necessity be rekindled if we are to make any headway. The NSS and other stakeholders should therefore contribute towards enhancing, rather than frustrating it. Credit: Mohammed Ibrahim. The author is with the Jasikan Dist. Assembly. He is a former PRO of the Assoc. of National Service Persons, Kintampo South District. [Email: barimaahmed@yahoo.co.uk]