NPP-Denmark:Mahama, Don’t Close the Door of Opportunity

President Mahama, Don’t Close the Door of Opportunity to Free SHS

We of the NPP, Denmark branch want to join the civil society and the ordinary Ghanaian to express our utmost displeasure and surprise at the manner president Mahama is spending just to deny the ordinary poor Ghanaian the right and chance to acquire free SHS at this age and time. We find it repugnant their penchant to insult, malign and impugn the integrity of many respectable personalities and ordinary citizens who disagree on their position against free SHS. Winston Churchill said “Pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”

We encourage Ghanaians to reject the cynics and the pessimist at the polls who selfishly believe free education is impossible. Faced with critics and doubters on his decision to commit America to massive space exploration, here is what President Kennedy said, “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too”. President Kennedy in his 1962 speech at Rice University, Texas

Let President Mahama know that the real cost of financing free education is forgoing the frivolous spending his NDC’s government is well noted for¬-the alleged dubious negotiated settlement of government’s debt under the guise of court’s authorization; his alleged complicity in the grossly bloated Embraer 190 Aircraft and hanger purchased for the Ghana Air Force which alarmed the late president Mills to set a committee to investigate as revealed by former attorney general Martin Amidu but got nowhere; the alleged link between a foreign company enjoying a huge tax waiver and invariably in charge of importing NDC’s party paraphernalia against the Political Parties Act 574(2000); the lack of official information regarding the perceived takeover of the non-performing loans or bad debts of Merchant Bank with money belonging to the ordinary Ghanaian worker; the conflict of interest, Asiedu Nketia a board member of the Bui Dam Project is involved as the main supplier of cement blocks to the project; the alleged giving out of cars; siphoning public funds to Volunteers for Mahama and other items to selected individuals just to buy their influence and votes.

We find president Mahama and the NDC’s incessant advertisements and campaign against the free SHS policy of the NPP dangerously delusional, inconsistent and utterly incongruent with the facts of president Mahama’s personal life, the constitutional policy on free education in Ghana and the new found oil resources of our nation.

President Mahama’s main argument against the free SHS policy of the NPP is that, Ghana is not ready for such a policy and we should wait until 20 years. We believe this position is utterly inconsistent with his experience. The fact remains that President Mahama benefited from free education some forty years ago even though his father, a former minister of state could have afforded to pay for his education. Why does he still believe Ghana can’t enroll such a policy for all at this time? We believe his position smacks lack of vision and an agenda to deny majority of Ghanaians the opportunities offered by education which has enabled him to be president of Ghana, so that the NDC can always exploit on their ignorance through propaganda. President Mahama must know that "Even in the worst circumstances, education helps to give children confidence to face the future." Ban Kim Moon (UN Secretary General)

It’s shameful president Mahama and his NDC’s surrogates are going around trying to compromise people with all sorts of gifts and goodies few days to elections. We want President Mahama to know that Ghanaians are people with dignity and want opportunities to excel but not to be lavished with cheap freebie.

We associate with the old Chinese adage “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime".

We urge Ghanaians to continue to associate and support the policy of Nana Akufo-Addo to provide free education for all. We believe it is a sustainable strategy to use the resource of the nation to feed Ghanaians for life as against the short-lived and self-centered strategy of president Mahama to compromise everybody just to win elections.

In fact, we condemn President Mahama’s frivolous use of our oil resource as short-sightedness. And it’s contrary to Nana Akuffo-Addo’s vision to transform Ghana. To Nana Akuffo-Addo “…the most equitable manner in which our nation and our people would benefit from the oil revenues is to ensure that they’re used on………our education and health care.”

Let President Mahama tell Ghanaians the sustainability of his spending and avowed commitment to campaign against the free SHS policy of the NPP? To Nana Akuffo-Addo and the NPP the revenues of our oil should be used to provide “the basis to sustain the development of our nation not for one year or two years but for generations to come". The vision of Nana Addo is that “at the time when the oil resources run out of Ghana we should have a transformed Ghanaian population educated and which has access to good health care”.

We want Ghanaians to know that Nana Addo’s commitment to free education is for Ghana’s medium and long term benefit and “Free SHS is not about winning the next elections, is about preparing the country for the next generation.” A point he made clear at the last IEA’s presidential debate. Let Ghanaians stand with Nana Addo and the NPP until they get the opportunity to implement their policies to transform Ghana. The NPP is unwilling to postpone free SHS for 20 years.

Ghanaians should ask President Mahama to tell them his motivation and obsession against free education? We urge him not to close the door of opportunity to free SHS for all Ghanaians having gone through the door and reaping the benefits as president of the Republic of Ghana.

Finally, the security agencies and the electoral commission should ensure that Ghanaians have the opportunity to cast their votes under free, fair and congenial atmosphere devoid of intimidation, threats and manhandling.

We believe Nana Akuffo-Addo and the NPP’s vision to transform Ghana through free quality education, health care and economic transform for the benefit of her people and future generations would triumph over John Mahama and the NDC’s greed, corruption, deceit and short-sightedness.

Vote for NPP for free quality education. Long live NPP, Long Live Ghana and God richly bless Ghana.

Thank you.

The Executive Committee, NPP-Denmark Branch