By: Nana ANNOR AMIHERE II
A few days ago, on Wednesday, I walked into First Atlantic Bank and every staff member, men and women, was in Fugu. No speeches. They just did it. They looked sharp.
So I asked myself. What if GCB, ADB, Bank of Ghana and every ministry did the same every Wednesday?
Think of the orders that would reach the weavers up North.
Here is the simple truth. The 24-Hour Economy is about demand. Nothing more, nothing less. No factory runs a night shift for goods nobody buys.
Remember 1.3.3: one job, three shifts. Buy Ghana, wear Ghana, and the shifts will follow.
The Fugu is a whole chain of jobs. Cotton farming. Spinning. Dyeing. Weaving. Tailoring. Trading. Most of it in the North.
Since Fugu Day was declared in February, weavers say they can hardly keep up. The market is there. We need more looms and more hands.
And where are the hands? Many of our young people from the North are in Accra as kayayei, truck pushers and house-helps. Some sleep in the open.
Give them looms, training and credit at home, and many will happily go back to real work.
President Mahama is leading by example in Fugu and local wear. But many appointees and MPs are still in imported suits, some of them obroni wawu.
Leaders, please follow your leader.
Kufuor gave us Friday wear in 2004. Mahama has given us Fugu Wednesday. Let us keep both. Write them into the public service dress code.
Remember Operation Feed Yourself in 1972? National pride moved the whole country. Let us do it again with what we wear.
Start with the children. A Fugu uniform day in our schools will raise a generation proud of made-in-Ghana.
Our designers, like Mawuli Kofi Okudzeto of MKO.GH, are ready. Nigeria, the rest of West Africa and our people abroad are waiting to buy.
Charity begins at home.
Wear Ghana. Buy Ghana. Wear Fugu on Wednesday.
