Such horrible thinking – NPP's Salam Mustapha berates Mahama over free tablet comment

Salam Mustapha, the National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party, has hit out at John Dramani Mahama, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, over his comments on the government's 'One-Student-One-Tablet' initiative.

In a publication via his social media handles, Salam Mustapha condemned John Mahama's comments, urging Ghanaians to treat the comments with "scorn and disdain".

According to him, while the NPP government views the students as the country's future, John Mahama sees them from the perspective of elections.

He questioned the moral temerity of John Mahama and the NDC to criticise the initiative, reminding them of a similar concept under their reign.

"John Mahama says that the current program to give 1student 1Laptop under the Ghana Smart School Project is an attempt to bribe the SHS students for votes. Such horrible thinking should be treated with scorn and disdain.

"These are SHS students, most of whom have no votes, so as to how it constitutes a bribe attempt beats every imagination. It's clear to us that in the mind of Sgt Lee, he doesn't see them as human beings but rather ballot papers.

"Has John Mahama suddenly developed amnesia too, to forget his own RLG (formerly Roagams Link Ghana Ltd ) project with his bosom friend Roland Agambire? Or is it just sheer hypocrisy or dishonesty?".

John Dramani Mahama, at a student forum at Wisconsin University in Accra, described the government's distribution of tablets to high school students as a form of vote-buying.

He stated, "you bring a new curriculum; the children have no textbooks in basic schools for the last four years, and you think that giving pre-tertiary students tablets is more important. Of course, everybody knows the political expediency."

"The pre-tertiary students are going to register in May because some of them are going to be 18 and above. Some are 18 already, and they are going to be the ones voting. So, this is a gift to entice them to vote for the current government. It's a bribe for them to vote for this government, but I mean, the students do not exist in isolation. They live in households and families," Mr Mahama added.


About RLG laptop distribution/scandal

The Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology in 2010 contracted RLG Communications Limited to provide and distribute 103,181 pieces of laptops. The NDC government at the time paid GH¢51,257,500.00 for the laptops.

However, the company was only able to produce for distribution 90,448, leaving a balance of 12,733 pieces of laptops worth GH¢6,366,875.00.

Cited for violations in the execution of the contract in a 2015 Auditor General’s Report, RLG Communications Limited agreed to repay GH¢6 million to the government after it failed to supply 12,733 laptops under the Free Laptop Distribution Programme in 2010.

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