The 2012 Presidential Candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has vowed that: “In our time, if we want to make radical rapid progress, access to education should be broadened for all the people of our country”.
He says: “…At least the basic, up through to secondary school, in our public sector, every Ghanaian child should have access to that education”.
Nana Akufo-Addo made the vow when he spoke at a memorial lecture to celebrate the centenary anniversary of Ghana’s only Prime Minister in the Second Republic, Prof. Kofi Abrefa Busia.
Extolling Prof. Busia’s attributes of “fairness”, Nana Akufo-Addo said the grounds of opportunity for the ordinary citizen, as championed by Prof. Busia, could only be brought on an even keel in Ghana, if education is made available and accessible to “every Ghanaian child”.
According to him, the present NPP intends transforming Prof. Busia’s commitment of fairness and equal opportunity into reality, saying: “It is a commitment that comes from him and it is one that we are going to make sure occurs in this country in our time”.
Nana Akufo-Addo, who is the first petitioner in the ongoing election petition case, made his promise of free and accessible education, particularly at the Senior High School level, his flagship campaign message in the December 2012 presidential election.
He is challenging the election results in court, together with his running mate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and party Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey.
Nana Akufo-Addo told the audience at the centenary memorial lecture organised by the Busia Foundation in Accra on Thursday July 11, 2013 that: “…Each one of us should have opportunity, hence the emphasis on education, making sure that everybody is given the widest possible access to good quality education”.
Among the audience at the lecture were former President John Kufuor, who served as a Deputy Foreign Minister in the Busia administration, former Finance Minister in the same administration, J. H. Mensah and Akenten Appiah-Menka who was Busia’s Deputy Minister of Justice and Trade.
Prof. Busia was born July 11, 1913 and died on August 28, 1978.
He was Ghana’s Prime Minister from 1969 to 1972.
He would have turned 100 years on Thursday.
