The Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Hon Elizabeth Sackey has encouraged newly posted National Service Personnel (NSPs) to cultivate the habit of reading to improve their literacy and efficiency at work.
According to her reading fosters critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving abilities while expanding knowledge and facilitating continued learning as well as contributing to efficiency, productivity, and professional growth.
Hon Elizabeth Sackey said this on Monday, November 7, at a one-day orientation programme organised by the Human Resource Department of the AMA for the 2023/2024 National Service Personnel posted to the Assembly.
She said as Accra enjoys the title of the 2023 World Book Capital, it was in the interest of the Assembly to promote reading at all levels not only to befit the honourable title but more importantly instill in the Ghanaian populace the good habit of reading and ultimately empower them for a better Ghana.
"We are supposed to promote reading as part of the titleship hence the need for all of us to cultivate the habit of reading," she said.
She quoted Colossians 3:23 and admonished the new service personnel to approach their work and daily tasks with diligence and commitment as if they were doing it for the Lord rather than for man and work with a sense of purpose and dedication.
She also urged them to work at the speed of light and do all that they could to uplift the image of the AMA.
The personnel numbered one hundred and twenty (120) would be deployed to various departments at the AMA and given specific roles and assignments in accordance with their areas of specialisation to make them more productive.
The Presiding Member of the AMA, Hon. Alfred Adjei in a remark charged the new service personnel to give their all in their patriotic service to Mother Ghana and dared them to aspire for higher heights and consider their service as just a stepping stone upon which many great steps would be taken to victory subject to how diligently they would take this very first step.
He therefore encouraged the service personnel to take pride in their work and strive for greatness in whatever they do, citing Martin Luther King Jr.'s quote” If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
The Coordinating Director at the AMA, Douglas N.K Annoful asked the personnel to adopt positive attitudes towards work and render services that would prepare them for the future and advance the interests of the Assembly.
He advised them to work very hard in order not to be identified as service persons but as promoting the interest of the AMA.
"Let nobody identify you as a service person but don't tell anybody that you are a permanent staff as well, " he told the service persons.