Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, has challenged the NDC argument that free secondary school education is not possible because of insufficient infrastructure.

Speaking to hundreds of NPP supporters in Gusheigu, on Tuesday, on the fifth day of his northern regional tour, Dr. Bawumia said “the NDC has put up many excuses in their desperation to prevent the implementation of the NPP’s policy of free quality secondary school education. One argument they put up is that, we are not ready, we don’t have the infrastructure, we have to wait 20 years to put up infrastructure etc.

What they forget to realize is that, when our first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah decided to make education free in the north, there was only one middle school in the north, the Tamale Middle Boarding School which eventually became the Tamale Secondary School serving the entire north. But this obvious lack of infrastructure and unpreparedness did not prevent Nkrumah from making education free. It is thanks to this bold decision that we are all where we are today” he said.

The NPP Vice-Presidential candidate was bemused at how people who themselves benefited from free education were today standing in the way of the children of Ghana and seeking to use all sorts of arguments to prevent the children of Ghana from reaching great heights through a similar policy.

“Indeed, if Dr. Nkrumah had followed the NDC line of reasoning, the free education policy would not have been implemented since infrastructure is still not adequate 55 years after independence and the very people opposing free education today, many of whom were beneficiaries of Nkrumah’s free education policy would not have found themselves in the positions they are in today to oppose Nana Akufo-Addo’s free SHS policy. In the same vein, if President Kufuor had followed the NDC’s reasoning, the National Health Insurance Scheme would not have been introduced because insufficient medical facilities.”

He further noted that Ghana cannot afford to wait 20 years for the implementation of the free senior high school policy.

“We need free secondary school education now and not in 20 years and in any case, the NPP’s free SHS policy has the expansion of infrastructure provision as a key component”, he added.

Dr. Bawumia indicated that the NDC was desperate to push all kinds of arguments just to confuse the people of Ghana but said that the NPP was going to implement the Free SHS programme come September 2013 not just because it is a political promise but because it is necessary for Ghana’s development and progress.

The Northern Regional tour has so far seen the NPP Running Mate already tour communities in the Walewale, Nalerigu – Gambaga, Bunkpurugu – Yunyoo and Gusheigu constituencies.

Dr. Bawumia was accompanied to Gusheigu by prominent members of the NPP in the North including former Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Sheik T B Damba, 2nd National Chairman, Mustapha Hamid, spokesperson to Nana Akufo-Addo, Mohammed Amin Anta, former Chief Executive of the Tamale Metropolis, Rita Asobayere, former National Women’s Organizer of the NPP and the Parliamentary Candidate for Gusheigu, Madam Rita Tani Iddi.