Deputy National Youth Organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Eric Edem Agbana has hit hard at President Akufo-Addo over his recent comment that suggests the next NDC government will scrap the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme.
He has thus described the president as suffering from paranoia, resulting from his government’s failure to fulfill its numerous promises given Ghanaians in the run up to the 2016 general elections.
Addressing the staff and students of the Bolgatanga Senior High School, Bolgatanga, in the Upper East Region, as part of his 2-day working visit to that region, President Akufo-Addo alleged that the NDC had planned to cancel the Free SHS policy at all cost.
He said,”I know that there are people in this country who don’t want this policy, who have been campaigning against this policy. They are dreaming that they are going to come back to power to cancel the policy…I want them to know that they are not coming back to power, and the Free Senior High School policy has come to stay.”
“They still haven’t woken up from their dreams; they dreamt in 2016 that they were on course for victory. They did not know that the Ghanaian people were no longer interested in entrusting them with power. They still haven’t woken up from their dreams,” added Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, 13th August, 2019.
But reacting to President Akufo Addo’s claim that the NDC will abolish Free SHS when given power again, Mr Agbana rubbished the claim, calling it baseless and urged Ghanaians to disregard it.
The youth leader stated that the President, Akufo-Addo, and his own abysmal performance is giving him sleepless nights, making him very paranoid. He added, because they had not been able to transform Ghana, particularly the north as they had promised prior to the elections in 2016, the president had to resort to such allegations to save his face in that shameful manner.
Agbana asserted that contrary to the NPP’s cheap propaganda, the NDC will improve the Free SHS Policy and make it better than how it is currently being rolled out by the “incompetent” Akufo-Addo government.
“The NDC has made a commitment to make the Free SHS program better, we will abolish the double track and improve the delivery in terms of quality. What the NPP is offering now has no regard for quality,” the vociferous youth leader said on WFM in Wa on Wednesday morning.
He said the NDC nor its flagbearer, H.E John Mahama had not held such a position to cancel the Free SHS, adding that Ghanaians are tired of how NPP communicators and government officials use the “poorly implemented Free SHS” as an excuse for their ineptitude and failures as a government.
What did Mahama say about Free SHS?
It is emerging that the NPP are deliberately tagging its opponents in the NDC as anti Free SHS, following concerns the party had raised over the past.
At a public lecture at the University of Cape Coast on 11th April, 2019, former president John Mahama revealed his next government would hold a major stakeholders’ meeting to forge consensus on how the Free senior high school (SHS) policy must be implemented.
H.E John Mahama.
Some weeks ealier, Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia who was speaking at a rally in Kwahu in the Eastern Region accused the NDC of planning to cancel the Free SHS.
Speaking to his party members, Dr. Bawumia said “I hear somebody [John Mahama] says that we are spending too much on free SHS, have you heard him? That we are spending too much on free SHS so we won’t have money to do other things’’.
But the former President while addressing a lecture at the University of Cape Coast revealed his next government would hold a major stakeholders’ meeting to forge consensus on how the Free senior high school (SHS) policy must be implemented.
“…If I become president of this country again or let me say by the grace of God when I become president of this country again, within the first three months of assuming office, we will hold a stakeholder meeting on free SHS and we will forge a consensus in this country on how it should be implemented so that we do not toy with the destinies of our children,” Mr Mahama said.
He added, “what we are doing with this huge influx into the secondary school system…is going to affect the quality of the public schools.”
Source: Myxyzonline.com
