Religious Grouping To Mediate In Gov't-NAGRAT Impass

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, 24 October 2006
THE Ghana Conference of Religions for Peace (GCRP) is to mediate to resolve the impasse between the government and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) over salaries and conditions of service.

The GCRP is made up of the Christian Council, the Catholic Conference of Bishops, the Ghana Pentecostal Council and the Council of Muslim Groups. His Eminence Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson is its chairman.

Maulvi Wahab Adam, Ameer and Missionary-in-charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, Ghana, who announced this in Accra yesterday said the GCRP would be meeting NAGRAT this Thursday to help address its concerns.

He was speaking at this year’s Eid-ul-Fitr celebration of the Ahmadi Muslims at Bustan-e-Ahmad (Garden of Ahmad) of Ashongman.

The Ameer said: "We have made the offer to NAGRAT of mediation and we will appeal to them to accept the mediatory role of the GCRP to help address NAGRAT’s concerns.

"The current industrial action embarked upon by NAGRAT is a source of worry for every one of us. Our children are seriously affected by this action and we have to move to get the problem solved, once and for all," he added.

For the past seven weeks, members of NAGRAT throughout the country have been on strike and this has crippled teaching and learning in the country’s second-cycle institutions.

Maulvi Adam, in his Eid sermon, said Ghanaians should be tolerant of one another’s opinions and beliefs in order to build a peaceful co-existence.

"The essence of Eid is to co-exist and tolerate one another’s views. If we continue to do this we will be building a peaceful and a strong nation."