COALITION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS CALLS ON GOVERNMENT TO AMEND SSNIT LAW TO ENABLE WORKERS RECEIVE SUPPORT DURING DIFFICULT TIMES.
“Laws are made for human beings, human beings are not made for law”, a legal dictum says.
Today
we have been confronted with a crisis like no other before. The COVID –
19 pandemic, a global enemy, has disrupted our social and economic
order at lightening speed and on a devastating scale we have not seen in
living memory.
The
virus is causing traffic loss of life, the lockdown and ban on social
gatherings as the available tools needed to combat it have affected
adversely thousands of people and their businesses. Daily routines that
were alive and kicking just a few months ago, have now become a huge
risk for everyone.
On
the 15th of March, 2020, the president of the republic of Ghan, His
Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo, announced a ban on social
gathering including the indefinite closure of all schools in the
country. The directives from the president indeed came at the right time
to help contain the supersonic speed with which the novel virus.
The
measures though helpful, have also degenerated into massive job losses
in the country with those in the private sector, the most badly hit.
We
the Coalition of University Students believe this is the right time for
a national insurance entity like SSNIT to step into the play in order
to rescue the numerous Ghanaian workers under their scheme (SSNIT) who
have been affected by the pandemic and are literally dying of hunger as a
result.
We therefore
call on government to amend the SSNIT law ( ACT 2008 ) which hitherto
only permitted workers to take home their pension allowance only after
they have gone on retirement, can now have access to their cash in times
of crises like the Covid-19 pandemic. Amending (ACT 2008) under the
SSNIT pension scheme will enable workers redraw part of their pension
allowance during difficult times like this period of COVID 19 pandemic,
which has rendered a lot of bread winners in Ghanaian homes jobless and
beggars.
Our call seeks
to resonate with similar sentiments made by the former president of the
republic of Ghana His Excellency John Dramani Manama, when he suggested
to government, inter alia, to consider and amend the ( ACT 2008 ) of
SSNIT Pension scheme law to cater for the social and economic wellbeing
of Ghanaian workers during difficult times.
This is a commendable appeal that government ought to give it a second look and possibly consideration and adoption.
We
all know these are not normal times, and it’s mostly in abnormal
periods like this, certain loopholes of what we otherwise had thought
was perfect, actually get exposed and revealed. For example, the
impending constitutional crisis Ghana is likely to face should December
polls does not take place.
Likewise
is every other law in this country that was enacted without factoring
in the likelihood of an eventuality like the pandemic that may take
place, is found wanting. And what we need to do now is to do the
needful, by making amendments to suit our current state of affairs now
and tomorrow.
Therefore,
there’s the need for some sort of “stimulus package” to be given to
those group of Ghanaians who have been saving with the scheme over the
years out of their savings.
This, we believe as concerned university students, would serve as part of our strategies to defeating the novel coronavirus
Signed
Dan Abonyi Yamoah
Convenor
Cape Coast Technical University
0543771054
Mahmud Abdul Waliu Kabore
PRO
0542305165
KNUST
Ebenezer Assan
Cape Coast Technical University
0593835086
Idrisu Abdul Hakeem
0557762967
KNUST
Ebenezer Amoah Affedzie
KNUST
0543084507
Issaka Issifu
ATU
0548564049
Mohammed Seidu
UENR
Perry Annan
KNUST
0546727794
Shadrach Appiah
UEW
0557704605
Sources:www.Hotstoriesgh.com
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