“Let punishment flow to let people conform or perish,’’ he said, adding, “I think we have been living a life of contradiction, we want to develop, yet we don’t want to go by the rules of development, we won’t unless we change our way.’’

The Speaker gave the caution when an advocacy group, Punctuality Ghana Foundation paid a courtesy call on him in Parliament house in Accra.

He expressed strong concern about the contradictory attitude of some Ghanaian which has become a bane to the country’s developmental effort, arguing that they knew the right things to be done in order to propel the country towards the path of development, but did the contrary and still expected to see meaningful changes in society.

Prof Oquaye cautioned against the proverbial Ostrich behaviour of some citizens, emphasizing that any perpetuation of negative status quo would in no way inure to the development of the nation.

“We must ask ourselves, as Ghanaians the one critical question as to whether we really want the country to develop and if indeed Ghana should develop, there is an urgent need for a paradigm shift towards a new way of doing things in the country.

‘’What we are doing now, we know we can’t develop, you know, he knows, she knows or can we?” the Speaker queried.

He took a swipe at workers who constantly absented themselves from work in the name of funerals and those who lingered about aimlessly during working hours and yet expected to be paid at the end of the month describing them as malingerers.

This negative attitude especially in the public sector, he said, had a negative effect on the country’s productivity.

The Speaker, who is also a former two-term Member of Parliament for the Dome/Kwabenya Constituency, called for stiffer punishment to be meted out to wrong doers in society to ensure adherence to law and order.

Furthermore, he was not happy about what he called unnecessary covering up for people who were wrong doers in society saying, ‘’we love wrong doers’’ by always finding ways to intervene after they offended the law.

That, he said, made it difficult for the laws of the land to work.

‘’We cover up for people unnecessary; In fact we love wrong doers, because wrong doers often have people who  will always cover for them,’’ he said.

The Speaker urged all Ghanaians to help fixed what he described as ‘a systematic problem’, by ensuring that everybody was prepared to obey rules to allow for development.

Mr Emmanuel Amarquaye, the Founder of the Punctuality Ghana Foundation, said the campaign was in respond to President Akufo Addo’s call for citizens to be time conscious.

He expressed worry about the many hours spent in traffic just to go to work during rush hours and suggested the need to consider fixable working periods to enhance service delivery at all time.

He registered his displeasure at the continues halt in government business as a result of transition from one government to the other with its negative impact on productivity

Mr Amarquaye proposed a situation where it was possible for service providers such as the utilities companies to have flexible working hours in order to deliver a 24 hour service to the public without contesting for time in traffic.

“The utility companies do not necessary have to contest with others when going to work. They can go to work at 10 am and close at 8pm,’’ he suggested.