Free SHS: Stop media attacks against me – Mahama to Akufo-Addo

Former President John Mahama has accused President Akufo-Addo of sponsoring media attacks against him following claims that he is sabotaging the Free SHS policy.

The former President made the accusation while distancing himself from media reports that he is plotting with the AfricaWatch magazine to run down the government’s flagship policy- Free SHS.

The Daily Guide and Statesman newspaper have claimed in their reports that Mr. Mahama is scheming with the international magazine to destroy the education policy.

A statement signed by Special Aide of Mr Mahama, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, said the former President has no relationship with the Africa Watch Magazine.

“The Office of H E John Dramani Mahama has taken note of a false publication by two Government sponsored tabloids, Daily Guide and Statesman, that the former President of the Republic of Ghana has contracted a magazine, the AfricaWatch to publish what it says are damaging reports about the Free SHS policy.

“The said false claim, which has been attributed to the Ministry of Education, has been reproduced by some online news portals, in yet another sponsored attempt by Government to use false and malicious publications to bring the name of the former President into disrepute.

“We wish to place on record that: Neither President John Mahama nor his office has, any, interest in or working relationship with the AfricaWatch Magazine. We have not seen or been offered an advance copy of the said publication to know what they have even written about the government’s Free SHS Policy. The claims by the two government sponsored tabloids and the alleged Ministry of Education statement are nothing but part of the usual set of lies conveniently being told to sway the attention and interest of the Ghanaian people from the “dangerous developments of corruption, insecurity, hardships and poor governance by President Nana Akufo-Addo,” the statement said.

It added: “President Mahama holds the enviable record as a Ghanaian leader who has done more to broaden the frontiers of SHS education than many before him. He began with the implementation of the Progressively Free SHS, implemented the Secondary Education Improvement Programme (SEIP), built Community Day Senior High Schools- the largest addition to our school stock since independence, expanded infrastructure in hundreds of existing Senior High Schools among other interventions. Like most Ghanaians, Mr. Mahama is deeply concerned about the horrible conditions under which SHS students are living and studying, out of which deaths have been recorded”.

It concluded: “the former President’s suggestion and advice to government has been a call for a National Stakeholder Dialogue to chart a better and befitting way forward. President should heed the that call and, instead of orchestrating attacks based on lies and pedestrian propaganda”.