For a very long time, the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has remained the sole Association for Nurses and Midwives in the country. In this period, the executives have erroneously taken the silence of members to be their weakness and hence treated them any how they deemed fit. An association formed to cater for the welfare of members has rather turned to become a money machine siphoning money and resources from its members.
After the gargantuan increment of various levies at the 16th Biennial National Delegates Conference, thousands of Nurses and Midwives registered their displeasure. The Coalition of Concern Nurses and Midwives (CCNM), petitioned the GRNMA to rescind their decision on the increments. This fell on deaf ears. The group followed up with another letter on the 9th of January 2018, threatening a court action to place an injunction on the decision to increase the levies.
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To add insult to injury, the President of the GRNMA on the 28th November 2017 in a telephone interview on TV3, called the CCNM an illegal group not recognized by the GRNMA and went on to say that any group of Nurses and Midwives who were not pleased with their decisions were free to break away because they were ready to move on with the discerning members. He vehemently refused to listen to the plea of members due to the armor of monopoly they had.
The challenge ‘to break away if we could’, thrown by the GRNMA President, gave birth to the Ghana National Association of Nurses and Midwives (GNANM) with virility in a quest to give Nurses and Midwives a better leadership, a second voice and an alternative labour union to break the chain of monopoly enjoyed by the GRNMA. At the birth of GNANM, the executives of the GRNMA laughed and made fun of the leaders, their sense of invincibility and arrogance was sky high.
Undoubtedly, GNANM has experienced a hypertrophied growth in terms of membership and has attained a legal certification from the office of the Registrar General’s Department. Leaving no stone unturned GNANM is at the verge of becoming a labour union. This tremendous strides by the Ghana National Association of Nurses and Midwives (GNANM) has sent chills down the spines of the executives of the GRNMA, they are now running helter-skelter in a bid to revamp their structures. Now they find CCNM as a legal body to invite for a meeting, now they are organizing meetings across the country, now members deserve souvenirs for free, now they will build a hospital for members, now they can engage members at the facility level, now all members are discerning, now the hostels will become more accessible and cheaper to members.
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As they frantically go round with this new found energy to vilify the leadership of GNANM and to preach new promises to Nurses and Midwives across the country, we want to ask them if these new acts and promises will answer how the closing balance of our account in 2016 (GHS 4,010,107.37) became different from our opening balance in 2017 (GHS 1,804,864.55), why executives eat without paying at the restaurants but members are unable to even get access to the hostels when stranded, how our profit in cash (Income- Expenditure) as at October 2017 (GHS 2,414,510.79) became different from our bank balance (GHS 288,102.48) at the same period last year.
According to Nancy Pearcey, “competition is always a good thing. It forces us to do our best. A monopoly renders people complacent and satisfied with mediocrity.” The monopoly GRNMA has enjoyed since 1960 is what has brought us to this point of mismanagement and injustice. We were forced to endure because there was nowhere to go. Well, GNANM has come to stay and we are happy with the development within the GRNMA. These recent changes in the GRNMA has increased our resolve to form a new labour union and added weight to the call for an alternative voice and leadership for Nurses and Midwives in the country. We want to use this opportunity to ask all members to remain resolute and see the changes happening in the GRNMA as a scheme to deceive them into thinking that they have them at heart to divert attention from the new and promising association. We have come to stay and we will not leave any stone unturned in our quest to become the labour union of choice for all Nurses and Midwives across the country.
Thank you all for your support.
God Bless Nurses and Midwives
God bless Mother Ghana.
MAXWELL ODURO YEBOAH JOHN AGBENYEAVU
(024 412 1894/020 666 0838) (0245 243 138)
NATIONAL PRESIDENT NATIONAL PRO
ROSEMOND AGYEIWAA MCJORDAN ABUDU SAASI
(054 683 3973) (024 482 8242/027 774 9853)
GENERAL SECRETARY NATIONAL ORGANISER
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