January headache

Christmas has been celebrated ever since I became aware of events as a child and I believe it will continue to be celebrated till thy kingdom come.  

The month immediately after Christmas is the month of January and is usually associated with harmattan and its related health challenges like catarrh etc. 

Except this year that even on the January 2, there was rainfall in some parts of the country.  This is very strange indeed and I pray that the false prophets do not take advantage of it to come up with all kinds of fear mongering predictions. 

Growing up, one of the issues that parents and people in general talk about is how long January is and how difficult it is to successfully manage things economically in catering for the needs of the family. 

It therefore requires prudent planning to ensure that one is not found wanting in having enough money in the pocket, to cater for the needs of the family after the Christmas holidays.

ln January, a lot of issues crop up.  This is the month that students will be returning to school after the holidays and so you can imagine the financial burden it places on parents whose children are in secondary and tertiary institutions.  

Money has to be found to provide for provisions at all cost.  These days the Free SHS has lessened the burden of parents a bit but if a parent has children, in the tertiary level, then the issue of hostel accommodation comes in and it is not easy to handle.  

After managing to see the children off to school, then comes the issue of how to manage to the end of the month when money will be made available to you, as a salaried worker. 

Those who ran their own businesses usually do not face such challenge but are also affected in a way because the people who should be buying stuff are not financially sound to patronise goods and services being offered.

In January, I honestly believe that most adults, if they had the power to wish for anything, would wish that they were children.  I believe that even for those who are not hypertensive, their blood pressure, if measured and compared to those of previous months, will show a sharp rise each morning in January. 

Generally rise in blood pressure is caused by stress apart from the other causes that cones from the food intake and lack of exercise.  They say a healthy workforce results in a healthy economy; reason why we pay special attention to the health needs of our leaders. 

The cost of the absence of say the President or the Minister for Finance to the state due to illness is huge and likewise the aggregate cost of workers who provide the requisite services for the economy to run smoothly

The whole issue has to do with the low salary levels for most civil and public workers in the country. 

One former President once said we pretend to pay them and they also pretend to work.  Salaries are not being paid based on living wage and so salaries people receive are not enough to properly take care of their needs and this is what mostly account for this perennial phenomenon which I term as the January Headache.  This question of the chicken and the egg, which comes first, as far as salaries are concerned, must be urgently addressed. 

The issue of hire purchase, could be one way of addressing this January Headache and government can liaise with supermarkets and other business establishments to take advantage of the Ghana Card, to provide this service to ease the burden of workers especially those who are parents each January. God bless.

NB: KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’

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