WhatsUp News’s military sources have reported sudden hikes in allowances that the Akufo-Addo government has unceremoniously lavished on soldiers in what appears to be a deliberate patronage to woo military loyalty.
Without any ceremony, a supposed professional risk allowance payable to soldiers has been tripled, and paid to the pleasant surprise of soldiers, sources say.
Lump sums three times what every soldier was expecting, allegedly hit the accounts of personnel on Friday. And the payments, allegedly, were effected even before the soldier would receive their pay slips.
And because the pay slips are not yet in, the personnel cannot really ascertain the extent of the cash hike that has been lavished on them in this government’s unceremonious act of pleasant surprises.
It is not clear if this hike in professional risk allowance is something that will be dispensed to public sector professionals across board. Demands for suchlike allowances have in the past been followed with strikes by doctors, nurses and teachers to force government to pay.
Government has in most cases not paid and where they have done so, they have done it reluctantly. However, in the case of the soldiers, in the 2020 election preheat, hikes in this professional risk allowance has been effected even though the soldiers were not expecting it.
Meanwhile military sources report that the sudden kindness has stirred up suspicion that what the government is doing is a deliberate patronage of soldiers for election time loyalty.
“The soldiers are not stupid, they know that this sudden show of care is meant to make them lapdogs of the government in respect of the elections; they want to buy our loyalty and support ahead of the election in December,” a source said.
It is said that, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) successful opposition of the district level elections and the increasing popularity of its opposition to the compilation of a new voters’ register has jolted the Akufo-Addo government to the possibility that the 2020 election could be lost.
Consequently, the government is willing to deploy every charm at its disposal to romance critical agencies and groups to its side, hence the unexpected gift from Father Christmas to Ghanaian soldiers, almost a month after Christmas.