Easter Monday, AU Day holidays must be scrapped – Ace Ankomah

Ace Ankomah

Ace Ankomah






Ace Legal Practitioner, Ace Kojo Annan Ankomah is calling for Easter Monday and AU Day to be scrapped as public holidays.

He also thinks some of the public holidays such as Independence Day and Founder’s/Founders’ Day should be merged and celebrated on March 6.

Ace Ankomah argued in an interview with Adom News that Ghana has 12 holidays, which means an average of one holiday every month, plus 104 weekend days, and annual leaves of between 20 and 30 days depending on where one works.

“This means for one third of every year we are not working – just sleeping or having fun. And even for the remaining working says we work of only 8 hours a day and have the remaining 16 hours to ourselves,” he said.

Ace Ankomah believes the many holidays, weekend days, and 16 hours free on every working day is too much time wasted in a country like Ghana where more productive hours are needed to accelerate the country’s development.

He said Easter Monday, for instance could easily be scrapped because it has absolutely no religious significance as there is no biblical record of any special event on the Monday after the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.

“I also believe the AU Day should rather be a day when workers must be made to work 16 hours instead of eight because what Africa needs is more work and not more holidays. The best tribute we can pay to our forefathers for their sacrifice is to rather do extra work on AU Day instead of holidaying,” her said.

Ace Ankomah also argued that the practice where when a statutory holiday falls on a weekend, the next week day is made a holiday, should also stop because it adds no value to the growth of the economy.

Indeed in the UK, all public holidays are usually shifted to a Monday and is described as Bank Holiday. But on the supposed holiday itself, people work.

On the contrary, Ace Ankomah said working on a statutory holiday is a legal offence and both the employers are particularly liable when their workers go to work on statutory holidays.

Sections 4 and 5(1&2) of the Public Holidays Act, Act 601 are very clear on which sectors are exempt from statutory public holidays and what the punishment is for those who violate public holidays.

Meanwhile, Rev. Gabriel Ansah of Adom FM’s Nasem University agreed with Ace Ankomah, saying that Easter Monday has not place in Christianity, so it is just a waste of precious man hours, and must be scrapped.

However,millions of Ghanaians across the country are participating in various activities such as Kwahu Easter Festival, Beach Parties and others, and most of them are totally against the suggestion that Easter Monday holiday should be scrapped.