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I am just an ordinary teacher who has taught for as long as 34 years and would soon be proceeding on a very painful retirement. In all these years of teaching I could not build my own house, which means that I would still be saddled with the payment of rent advance to shylock landlords even after my most productive years. Some of my children will still be in school and I would have to struggle to pay their school fees like any responsible parent. I have heard stories of teachers who retired under my circumstance and had to die prematurely because they could not afford medical care and other basic necessities of life because of inadequate pension. It is for this reason that I feel passionately about the current debate and strike action by teacher�s associations over the second Tier Tension Scheme. First, this is a very sensitive issue for all teachers and therefore the leadership of the various teacher associations should have created a platform for a vigorous discussion amongst us in order to take a stand which would be in the overall interest of all teachers. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Like all teachers, I heard of the strike action intended to force the Government to hand over our second tier pension money to companies backed or sponsored by organized labour on radio. We had not been consulted and our leaders had taken the decision on their own without informing us. The decision to go on strike did not have our input; the leaders of organized labour did not think that our views mattered. The irony of it all is that organized labour called the strike precisely because it felt that Government was not consulting it on matters which could affect the destiny of its members. In my view the call to arms by the Ghana National Association of Teachers is highly irresponsibly and would not resolve the problems faced by Teachers like me. The real problem is that pension funds have not been prudently invested and therefore the yields have been too small to pay any realistic pensions. How can this problem to cure by going on strike who says for instance that Data Bank which is so openly linked to Nana Akufo-Addo will be a better fund manager than Pension Alliance Trust which is also alleged to be associated with some personalities in the NDC? In view the supposition that the private sector is more efficient than the public sector is only a myth. All over the world, we have seen huge private sector companies go bust. Under the current circumstances, it is only the government of Ghana which can guarantee the safety of pension funds because even if the state sector mismanages or misapplies pension funds, the state can be relied upon the make good what has been lost. What if the limited liability companies that the leaders of our associations and unions trust so much school go bankrupt? Who will we hold responsible for the loss of our pension funds? Over the years, I have been deeply worried about some of the very useless causes over which our leaders have gone on strike. The other day, teachers were made to go on strike over car maintenance allowance when very few teachers have cars. Indeed, it is our leaders who own the cars and they forced all of us to go on strike when there are more serious issues affecting the performance of our duties and the welfare of teachers. For example, teachers who were promoted in 2013 have still not been put on the appropriate salary scale when they are put on the appropriate salary scale they will only be paid one to three months arrears. Teachers are supposed to get incremental jumps from September 1st but this never happens. A very large number of teachers who qualify for promotion are not promoted because Government claims that it cannot afford to pay their salaries. Interestingly, these issues which directly affect teachers at all levels of education are never raised by our leaders. The insistence that our associations should manage our pension funds make me laugh. The Ghana National Association of Teachers runs a mutual fund and teachers should be asking themselves whether it is properly managed. Teachers who have gone for loans from this fund end up paying the prevailing bank interest rates. Why have teachers not been given a special dispensation? There are many classrooms across the country which does not even have black boards and chalk. The facilities for teaching do not exist in many schools and GNAT will not speak about these conditions. I would not be surprised if at the end of the day some of our leaders who are leading this strike action end up on political platforms campaigning for political parties and as members of parliament or ministers. I have been used enough by politicians clothed as workers leaders pursuing their partisan agenda. The leadership of GNAT must consult the members of the association on all issue including strikes. They are not wiser than the rest of us.