𝐁𝐲 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐀𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐫 -07-09-2026
Many doctors, teachers, and nurses reject postings to some parts of our country including northern Ghana for service. These professionals would leave no stone unturned to lobby for postings to only urban Ghana. Why is that?
Why did this government decide to incentivise teachers who accept postings to rural areas?
We can be as emotional as we want to be, but the Greater Accra Regional Minister was not wrong. Living in some parts of Ghana is punishment; no access to potable water, no access to quality education, no access to proper healthcare, lack of other career opportunities, and generally lower quality of life.
Why are we jittery?
It is trite knowledge that apart from Accra, the rest of Ghana is massively underdeveloped. There is a yawning gap between the quality of life in the Greater Accra Region compared to other regions. If that wasn’t the case, the capital won’t be as congested as it is.
Instead of giving a dog a bad name and hanging it, let’s look at the issues that confront rural Ghana and the half-hearted approach by leaders in confronting them.
There’s another side of this conversation that very much still qualifies as punishment. Per the remarks of the Minister, they “send these workers far away, from their residence… as a form of punishment”. It is still a punitive measure to transfer workers to other regions if they fail at performing a task or are engaged in acts inimical to the ethics of their organisation.
It does not matter where you’re being transferred from and to.
If I lived in the North with my family and you transferred me to Accra for something wrong I did, you have punished me. I have to immediately look for accommodation, which will even come at a more exorbitant cost. I have to pay thrice for transportation to work and pay more for fees for my children. I also have to pay more for the food my family consumes. All these will happen without a change in my monthly earnings.
If I have to leave my family behind, you have denied me proximity to my wife and kids, that is ‘punishment’. That is punishment to my children as well who have to now contend with living without the physical presence of their father. How often will I get the opportunity to see my wife in order to perform my conjugal duties? You have punished me!
We are uncomfortable with the Minister’s oratory, because she referenced a particular geographical location, and the fact that already, there are negative perceptions and stereotypes about living in those parts. The perceptions are true.
If you have lived in the north and absolutely loved it, fair enough, but you cannot use that personal experience to counter the valid statistical data about life in northern Ghana or many other regions including where I come from — the Volta Region. That would be an anecdotal fallacy. The statistics are there, and corroborated by unimpeachable evidence.
I was born in Liati in the Afadjato South district, I moved to Accra 29 years ago for the same reasons many of you are here. If you asked me to move back permanently to Liati today on 3x what I earn now, I shan’t. As difficult as life in Accra is, it is better than living in Afadjato South. Here, I have the opportunity to pursue my ambitions and I won’t trade that for going to the farm, till the ground and earn next to zilch for my hard work.
Madam Ocloo did not err. She was right, in every angle you want to see it. But let us decentralise development. Let us vigorously develop northern Ghana and other regions. Akpe.
