Review Free SHS, scrap ex-gratia, and go back to building your community day schools – Mahama told

The Executive Director for the Centre for Public Opinion and Awareness (CenPOA), Michael Donyina Mensah, has outlined some issues President-elect John Dramani Mahama must address in the immediate term if he is officially sworn in as president on January 7, 2025.

Speaking on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM, he declared that the president-elect has been granted superior powers based on the results of the general elections.

He wants the president-elect to remove ex gratia, as he promised, and he is quite pleased with the number of seats his party has obtained in parliament; it will make it much easier for him to advance this agenda.

Michael Donyina Mensah posited that Mahama should not serve the interests of his party but pursue an agenda that is in the national interest. He also advised the president-elect to review the free SHS policy.

He believes that the free SHS policy is good, but it needs to be reviewed to be far better than it is now. He recommended Mahama reconsider his plans to develop the 200 community-day senior high schools.

To him, Mahama must avoid pleasing people and rather focus on implementing policies that will make the country progress.

"He should not continue all the initiatives by President Akufo-Addo because if these policies were great, Ghanaians would not have voted the NPP out.

"There are a lot of things I would want to state here, but they are a lot, and I can't state them now, but the most important thing to indicate is that President-elect John Dramani Mahama must remain diligent and stay on course and avoid making the mistakes of the outgoing government."

When asked if he was surprised that certain senior officials, ministers, and deputies lost their seats, he responded no, claiming that all persons connected to President Akufo-Addo had lost their seats.

"Bawumia contested the election, but Ghanaians rejected Akufo-Addo. The outcome of the elections is a sign of the collapse of Akufo-Addo's dynasty, which has been destroyed. Akufo-Addo was not open to dissent. Those who held different views aside from his were vilified, and so they also stayed away from him."