Opinions of Thursday, 15 June 2023

Columnist: Charles Yeboah

Why is NDC so obsessed with Free SHS?

NPP flag NPP flag

It's often said that: if one plans to be rich in ten years' time, he should plant trees, but if one is seeking to be rich eternally, he should invest in education.

The latter is the vision of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, led by Nana Akuffo Addo and his presumptive successor, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the vice president of our Republic.

As in all government policies, since independence, there have been challenges that hinder its implementation. Some caused by genuine reasons; that is, lack of funds or inadequate resources. Others too are orchestrated by fiendish nation wreckers who wish doom for Ghana and her future. They come in the likeness of a political party that swears heaven and earth to make education so expensive for the poor.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is supposed to be a socialists party that has the less endowed masses at heart. But the opposite is the case. Left with them, even the air we breathe would be weaponised through taxation and levies.

Ironically, as in contrast with their communist values, the NDC opposed the Health Insurance scheme, when the NPP said it was possible. Their party faithfuls enjoyed that healthcare freebies the most, as corroborated by various surveys.

Today, the Nana and Bawumia Free SHS Graduates Association (NBGA) has heard a disgusting statement from one NDC bigwig, John Jinapor. Without shame and conscience, the henchman to the NDC's flag bearer, John Mahama, said his party will negotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to scrap the Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy if they are voted into power come election 2024.

Thank God, that dream is having no iota of possibility in the near future. The inordinate ambition of former president Mahama to be voted into Jubilee House again to desecrate the presidency will never see the light of the day.

We are the beneficiaries of Free SHS. We are a mobilised formidable force to reckon with. Furthermore, we are united in our unflinching quest to maintain the NPP in power to give equal access to quality education to all school going age in Ghana. Free SHS has come to stay. Some of us would have been relegated to the background of the academic ladder if we had not benefitted from the Free SHS.

Today, we can rub shoulders with our mates who had rich parents. We didn't choose our poor parents. Providence made it so. We had no hope we could go beyond our community school. But today, hope came in the appearance of president Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. Such hope needs to be maintained and sustained.

The NDC is a curse to Ghana's education strides. All patriotic Ghanaians should stand against them in the polls to safeguard our education and future.

The Chairman of NBGA, Mark Ansu who is out of the country on an equally important assignment has delegate ten of his able lieutenants to represent the Association at the NPP Headquarters on June 16, 2023, when Dr. Bawumia submits his papers to commence the flagbearership contest.

Dr. Bawumia is our only hope to break the 8. It's possible. He is the shoo-in candidate that commands the ability to break the glass ceiling eight year jinx.