Education Minister Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has descended on ex-President
John Mahama for making ‘convenient’ statements about the controversial
Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), which the government says is not part
of the curriculum for basic schools.
According to
him, Mr. Mahama’s erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) government
introduced Sexuality Education in 2015 but is now turning around to score cheap
political points as regards the matter.
The minister
said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration had not introduced the CSE as
is being claimed, and said the government would never do anything to jeopardize
the country’s cultural norms and practices.
He said he was
stunned to see Mr. Mahama and the NDC, who introduced the subject in their
time, making a U-turn to blame the NPP government for the policy.
Speaking at the
National UTAG Congress at KNUST in Kumasi yesterday, the minister said he was
not happy with Mr. Mahama’s ‘hypocritical’ stance on the matter.
Napo stated that
he had been chastised unjustifiably by the public because of Mr. Mahama’s “propaganda
and dirty politics.”
According to
him, he would definitely come out boldly with evidence and other facts to
expose the hypocritical nature of Mr. Mahama and the NDC.
“I will speak
directly to John Mahama on Monday. He is a hypocrite and that is not the way to
exercise leadership,” Napo said.
Setting the
record straight, Dr. Prempeh stated
that Cabinet had not approved the CSE, so he didn’t know why he was
being lambasted.
“The guidelines
for the Comprehensive Sexuality Education doesn’t have Cabinet’s approval,
therefore, there is no subject on the CSE as I speak now. The pictures that you
see on the Internet were published by John Mahama’s NDC in 2015; therefore,
nobody can accuse me of that,” he said.
“Why should
someone who has published a book on Sexual Education in 2015 turn to blame me?”
the minister queried.
According to
him, as the Minister of Education, he would never allow anybody to import
foreign culture on schoolchildren in order to jeopardize
their future.
He said Article
39 stipulates that the culture of the country should be given a priority
whenever any decision is taken on education, and he is aware of that.
Napo, who seemed very disturbed over Mr. Mahama and the NDC’s action, said, “If we don’t stop this dirty politics, governance will be difficult.”
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi
