By Baba Ali, Information Services Department
During Christmas and the New Year, many get occupied with food, buying clothing, attending parties, musical concerts, and other entertainments, and engaging in all sorts of activities, but only a few remember that January is more than 31 days.
In a creative article, the late Freda Dedzie, of the Information Services Department, asked if January really has 31 days. The creative writer asked this rhetorical question to drive home the financial difficulties salaried workers face in the month of January after blowing their December wages on Christmas expenses. Many others have jokingly said and teased yearly, in the month of January, that January is a special month and is more than the usual thirty-one days it is supposed to be, due to the obvious reasons, financial difficulties. It is the belief of many that, after spending the whole year toiling and labouring to keep body and soul together, the Christmas holidays should be used for pleasurable activities. The result of this thinking is the reckless engagement in financially draining activities during the Christmas holidays, particularly from December 23 to January 1, of the following year.
Any attempt to advise such people against reckless spending is usually met with the famous Akan proverb, “ye be wo nti, yenda,” to wit, should we not sleep, because we will die? As we are in the Christmas season once again, the fear of January will not stop holiday makers from partying and engaging in all sorts of pleasurable activities. The main stakeholders in the creative and entertainment industries cannot wait to cash out on the season. This is the time for event planners to also cash out on events during the season. Petty traders are not left out in this cash-out business, as they cannot wait to increase their sales. All these people, and many others unmentioned, would get a share of the poor workers’ savings.
The fever of Christmas also sees the media busily announcing and advertising money-consuming events. This often makes the victims of Christmas double up on their game of making more money. No wonder the streets of Accra and other cities started experiencing human and vehicular traffic, as traders and their patrons flooded the markets to either make money or buy the things they would need for the festivities. If Christmas fever triggers traders and other profit-making organisations to devise smart ways to make more money, would it be far from the truth to guess that some workers of public institutions might also find innovative ways to make more money for the Christmas holidays? The result then could be looting of state coffers with smart programmes and activities that have nothing to do with the welfare of the citizens whom these public officers are employed to serve.
Sure, Ghanaians have not forgotten about the millions of Ghana cedis that was spent on Christmas trees by one of the state-owned companies two years ago. The introduction of December as Tourism Month in Ghana by the Ministry of Tourism and the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has also made Ghana one of the best places to celebrate Christmas. This has made Ghanaians more lustful during festive seasons like these, as they are presented with so many events during the festive season. The result of this is the blowing or wasting of one’s meagre salary without thinking about what happens in January.
Whether we like it or not, Christmas and New Year and their accompanying money-consuming events have come to stay, and not even the fear of “90-day January” can stop poor workers from blowing their salaries on the merry-making events of the seasons. Just as some people jokingly put it, everyone must be prudent in the way they spend during these festive occasions, and no one wants to hear, brother or sister, give me or borrow this or that amount of money to me when we enter the new year, so that when they are not able to offer it, then it turns out that the brother or sister is wicked or stingy and is given all kinds of names. There is also an interesting one, which says, “take photos while you spend the money this festive season, so that, when we get to January, you would not say that your money is missing, not adding up, or that it is stolen.”
Notwithstanding, the overburdened poor Ghanaian workers should consider the harsh economic conditions they have been subjected to since 2021 and celebrate this year’s festive seasons with some considerable level of caution because, just as they cannot change their addiction to Christmas and New Year festivities and spending, they cannot equally reduce the days of January from ’90 days’ to 31 days.