A former Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akomea has labeled the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Mahama-led administration as “hypocrites”.
Nana Akomea wonders why the current administration is seeking to reintroduce Free Senior High School (SHS) education after arguing that the policy which was presented to Ghanaians by NPP’s 2012 flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the 2012 election was not feasible now.
“…in the Run-up to the 2012 general elections, they (NDC) made it clear via numerous adverts that, free SHS education cannot be possible in this country because there are inadequate structures in the country to make the initiative successful……They claim all free things are not good. So what has now changed that free things are considered valuable in the NDC Mahama-led administration?” he questioned.
President John Dramani Mahama last Tuesday renewed government’s commitment to abolish fees for both day and boarding students of Senior High schools in the 2015/2016 academic year.
During his presentation of the State of the Nation address to Parliament, President Mahama announced that his administration would from the 2015/2016 academic year implement what he termed as ‘progressive free SHS education’. The announcement attracted criticisms, mainly from his political opponents citing him for ‘stealing’ the idea from Nana Akufo Addo’s campaign manifesto.
The government has however dismissed the accusations saying it is an already enshrined provision in the constitution which every government is mandated to implement, thus the NPP cannot claim intellectual property of the policy.
Government said Article 25 clause 1b of the 1992 Constitution enjoins it to implement a progressively free secondary education.
But Nana Akomea, who was speaking on AsempaFM, said the Mahama administration must explain to Ghanaians what it meant by “progressive free SHS education” after rubbishing the ideology a few years ago.
“…the NDC Mahama-led administration is being hypocritical…It will be fair for the NDC to publicly give credit to the NPP and admit that they copied the ‘free SHS school’ policy from Nana-Addo….the NPP is not claiming ‘free SHS education’ as its property despite Nana Addo using it in the 2012 elections…but it is generally accepted it was the NPP’s central message during the elections so for the NDC to assert the NPP does not have a right to claim credit beats my mind,” Nana Akomea.