Abdul Wahab

Dr Bawumia has been sharing his views on JM’s “24-hour economy” policy proposal. Many things he has said so far, however, disclose a limited appreciation of the 24-hour economy concept as it is known throughout the world. Let’s take this statement, for instance: He says that: “if you feel you’ll make money opening [your business] 24 hours, there’s no law preventing you from opening.” By this, he means that the policy is needless because no law prevents a 24-hour economic activity. The fundamental flaw in his statement is that the he misses the distinction between (a) ‘not preventing’ a thing from happening, and (b) ‘promoting’ a thing to happen. Let me illustrate this with the “send the girl child to school” policy of the 1990s. At the time we started the “send the girl child to school” campaign, there were no laws in Ghana which ‘prevented’ a girl child from going to school. So, according to the outgoing Vice President’s logic, the campaign was needless. Yet we found it prudent, even then, to ‘promote’ girl child education. But that’s because we knew, even then, that if you want something so badly, you don’t leave it to just happen - you make it happen. You promote it. And, we ‘promoted’ girl child education because we knew, even then, that ‘not preventing’ it wasn’t enough. We promoted education in the northern parts of the country from the 1950s when there were no laws which prevented education in the north. Well, as a teacher, I know that a wrong answer is an opportunity to educate. So, this is exactly where further education on the 24-hour economy policy is needed: 24-hour economy is not about the law ‘not preventing’ people from working 24 hours. It is not even wholly about legality. 24-hour economy is about PROMOTING the culture of pursuing economic activity around the clock - 24/7. It is about giving INCENTIVES to manufacturers, for instance, to find it more profitable to operate beyond the traditional 8 to 5 schedule. It is about making people FEEL safe and secure to be out there in the factories, on the roads, in markets and, indeed, out of the home and out of the beds beyond the traditional 8 to 5 schedule. And all this requires thinking beyond bare legalities.