Why does only the President know? CENAB UK asks.

CENAB UK is questioning two significant announcements made by the President recently and which brought into public knowledge for the first time revelations hitherto unknown to the public except his good self and his speech writers.

President Mahama, on Saturday announced that 73 out of the proposed 200 Senior High Day Schools have reached different stages of construction, while others are on course. President Mahama said this when he addressed staff and students of the Bagabaga Education College, during their 70th Anniversary celebration and Fourth Graduation ceremony in Tamale. Then on Monday, the President also announced that 300 people are facing prosecution over corruption offences in the country. President Mahama made this announcement when he opened a conference on the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) in Accra today (Monday).

These two announcements by the President are very significant revelations which have been previously unknown to any one in Ghana except the President's speech writers. The question that CENAB UK would like to ask the President and his speech writers is why they have conveniently left out the details of such important happenings in our country.

Two areas where the President and his administration have attracted much attention are in the areas of education and the fight against corruption. The other, being its maintenance of the economy. The government's decision to make a 360 degrees U-turn to adopt the NPP policy of Free SHS which they took to the cleaners during the camping for the 2012 elections has turned tongues of political commentators and observers wagging as to the real intention of the NDC. Is it a case of the NDC always knowing that Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP had made the right decision to adopt the Free SHS Policy or another election ploy seeking to block the NPP resuscitating it for 2016. Is the NDC adopting a "Konongo Kaya" approach to what they know is the right answer to Ghana's educational dearth? This is a vision Lee Ocran, the then Education Minister said was “impossible”, the Vice President, Amissah-Arthur said would “destroy education” and the President said it was “not feasible”. In fact it was a well chorused NDC chant that “everything free” was not good.

So far the only commitment that the NDC government has made towards the policy since it announced it was going ahead with it is the promise to build 200 schools in instalments of 50 schools year for four years starting from 2014. Already we have Minister Okudzeto Ablakwa come out to publicly deny that they have committed to 50 schools in 2014. According to him, the project is yet to take off hopefully in 2015. However we have a President stating emphatically that 73 of the schools are in various stages of completion. Could this therefore be said to be a Christmas pantomime script? What is significant about this announcement is the fact that he did not tell us where in the country we can find any of these schools. Nobody in Ghana has this information other than the President and his speech writers. Now with the Minister denying that any schools have been built and the President's 73 phantom schools, CENAB UK is asking who we should believe. After 4 years of removing "schools under trees" which turned out to be the biggest educational hoax in Ghana, the NDC is preparing our minds towards another callous misrepresentation of information for 2016. CENAB UK is therefore exposing this disingenuity of Mahama and his NDC administration.

At NACAP conference, the President made another important announcement yet only known to himself that 300 people are facing corruption charges in the country. None of these persons or cases is known to the media or the public. We have high profile corruption cases whose culprits are walking free and laughing all the way to the bank.

On the President's lack of commitment to fight corruption Manasseh Azure Awuni writes:

"When President Mahama boasts about fighting corruption, as he did at the NACAP conference yesterday, only two reasons can be assigned for what often sounds a drunken talk: either the President is extremely ignorant about happenings in the country (which he is not) or he takes the citizens for idiots. Take GYEEDA, for instance: The Attorney General's Department entered into agreement with Roland Agambire's AGAMS Group of Companies to refund GHc55.million on instalment of about GHc14.5million per quarter of 2014. We are in December, the last month of the last quarter, and the government is boasting that it has so far retrieved GHc14.5million from GYEEDA. This means that after the first quarter payment, rLG and its sister companies have refused to pay the rest of the money due the state. It also means that Zoomlion and Better Ghana Management Services Limited have not paid a pesewa of the over GHc140million they were supposed to refund to the state. As far as SADA is concerned, nothing has been done about it, almost a year since the rot was exposed. No single individual has been called to account for the state funds they stole or wasted. This is shameful, Mr President. It's absolutely shameful. This is not the legacy you want to leave. I hope not."

Well this beautifully summed up and we do not need to say more. Only the President knows when he says we are committed to building schools and fighting corruption.

Source: CENAB UK

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