The vice-president of Ghana, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, says the National Democratic Congress has zero credibility when it comes to the implementation of the Free Senior High School policy.
Dr Bawumia questioned why John Mahama, who was the number-one critic of the government’s flagship Free SHS policy, now claims he is capable of implementing the policy better.
The opposition NDC, on Monday 7 September, launched its People’s Manifesto with a promise to implement the Free SHS better and extend it to private schools, among other things.
NPP achievements
However, Dr Bawumia doubts that the opposition NDC has what it takes to honour that promise.
“We have expanded school feeding and LEAP [the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty welfare programme], so you will find that there is a big difference between the economy being managed by Nana Akufo-Addo and Mahama,” the vice-president said.
“We restored the teacher training allowance and we have abolished the BECE examination fees for students. We have abolished the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) examination fee for students. They can now go and write without paying any exams fee.”
Dr Bawumia was addressing the chiefs and people of Jirapa during his three-day tour of the Upper West Region to canvass votes for the NPP ahead of the 7 December presidential and parliamentary elections.
The vice-president also accused the NDC of abolishing the teacher trainee allowance because they lack the financial muscle to execute the policy.
Intervention programmes
Chronicling the achievements of the Akufo-Addo government in various sectors of the economy over the past three and a half years, Dr Bawumia said the opposition NDC cannot boast of a single social intervention programme.
“For a social democratic party, they couldn’t do anything to mitigate the suffering of our people. For the people of the North they said they have the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority Programme (SADA). Even under the SADA programme they had $100 million to execute projects, but they cannot account for anything under the programme,” the vice-president said.
Fred Dzakpata
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