The Association, made up of unemployed nurses of various categories and students, prior to the presentation, demonstrated on some streets of Bolgatanga, the Regional capital to register their displeasure to government about delays in postings, and to demand for financial clearance.

The nurses, who were in uniform with red bands tied to their wrists, necks and heads, held placards with inscriptions such as: “the nurse to patient ratio in Ghana is 1:22, Ghana is dying,” “Our skills are decaying, post us now,” “Nurses and Midwives deserve permanent employment,” “Nurses and Midwives are tired of the reassurance.”

The petition read “The leadership of the Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainees Association (GNMTA) would like to bring to the attention of His Excellency, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo facts and figures of graduate nurses and midwives who are ethically prepared and licensed to deliver health care services to the Ghanaian citizenry. We have a total number of 26,864 nurses and midwives due for employment.”

Mr Gadafi Avokbil Akugri, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the GNMTA in an interview with the press after presenting the petition, said “our main purpose of demonstrating is for the government to release financial clearance for our employment which has been overdue.”

He said they were supposed to be employed between January and February, because recruitment was usually done in two folds- “the first one normally comes around January – February and the second one comes around July-August, and all these months have actually not been fulfilled as expected.”

He said they were giving government a three-week ultimatum to address their concerns, or they would embark on “a million walk” to press government to heed to their demands.

Mr Akugri said the GNMTA would always use dialogue and negotiations to get their grievances addressed, “if all that has failed, we will march to the President himself and present our final petition. From there we will not demonstrate, we will not picket, but when the time comes, we will advise ourselves accordingly”.

Mr Emmanuel Geyevo, PRO of the Coalition of Concerned Nurses and Midwives, who took part in the demonstration to support the unemployed nurses, told the press in an interview that it is their hope that government would address the concerns raised, pay National Service allowances, and employ them to augment the nurse-patient ratio of the about 1:22.

He said National Service personnel have not been paid for six months, “how do you want them to survive, you have posted them to various facilities in the villages, they pay for rent and transportation to their places of work. How do you expect them to work?”

Mr Geyevo said some of the nurses were bonded with legal obligations, but were “left in the house to rot” adding that “please government should look fast and get them employed. It is as simple as that.”

Receiving the petition on behalf of the President, Mr Adongo thanked them for the peaceful demonstration, and said “I have taken note of all that is in your petition, I will ensure that your concerns get to the President.”