NPP's risky free SHS campaign cannot win election- Okudzeto Ablakwa

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a National Democratic Congress (NDC) member and Deputy Information Minister, says the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) “risky,” one-issue campaign will not win them the elections.

He told Joy News that the people of Ghana will reject the NPP’s “one solution for all campaign.”

He was responding to a recording released by the NPP in which then-vice presidential candidate John Mahama is heard promising free senior high school (SHS) to students at community day school should the NDC win power in 2008.

The NPP called the president’s opposition to free SHS as proposed by the NPP hypocritical in light of the fact that he is a beneficiary of free education and that only four years ago he promised to implement it for certain students.

NPP Director of Communications Nana Akomea said that the president promised free education at the primary and secondary levels.

“Clearly there is some hypocrisy and double standards here,” he charged, adding, “the president himself enjoyed it; he is a beneficiary; he is a product of free secondary school education.

“If he, as a product, is today president, how can he turn back and say that the free education will mean there is no quality?”

“The argument they are making is not even sound,” he added.

In a rebuttal, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said, "nowhere on that tape can you hear Mahama say he will implement free education. He only talked about affordability.”

In furtherance of that promise, he said, the NDC government has over the past three and half years increased capitation grants and eliminated 1,700 schools under trees.

He countered that the NPP failed woefully in accusing the president of double standards and that free SHS cannot fix damaged roads or improve healthcare delivery. Therefore, he said, the NDC is a more serious party with more realistic promises.