The Best is Right here with Nanas Free ,,,,,

, Qualitative Senior High School Education Policy(b)

Hear the NDC, particularly Lee Ocran, current Minister of Education shouting himself hoarse when Oil was first discovered. He said emphatically that it was not time to shout ‘eureka’ and that what was sent to Parliament House was not Crude Oil but “adwe ngo” (palm kernel oil). The Palaver in its editorial wrote “ But is the news the type doctored to calm political tempers generated by the energy crisis or is it a genuine piece of information without any political twist? Again, Page 6 of the Ghana Palaver of July 3 – July 5, 2007 had this screaming headline “Minority dismiss government claims about GNPC and energy find”. Mr Moses Asaga, Ranking Member on Energy described the government decision to go public on the oil find at this time as “premature”, saying that it was a complete show of desperation over continued exposure of its incompetent handling of the energy sector.

How do we trust such people who have shown by all intent and purposes that they are hell bent on halting our progressive forward march towards social emancipation? The NPP used state money and also encouraged its foreign partners to prospect for Oil and we were rewarded with the discovery of the commodity. The NDC used state money to prospect for salt and caused financial loss to the country.

The New Patriotic Party has been benevolent in coming out with details: This year’s election is unlike previous ones. The Best is Right here. When the NDC put it in its Manifesto that there was going to be a One Term Premium on the NHIS, it did not give us the amount involved and how it was going to implement it. Therefore the party has no moral justification to ask for how we intend to implement the policy. Nevertheless the NPP has been open on how it intends to go about it.

It is like a reading a budget statement on the floor of Parliament. When Budget statements are read on the floor of Parliament it takes some time before details are worked out. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo has espoused his vision on Education to Ghanaians. Leading members of the party have given Ghanaians the recipe on how to go about its implementation. What do they need again? The Nefarious Destructive Cancer has deliberately refused to accept our explanations and continue to bandy its own “chukwuchukwu” figures about. There is the need to have an in-depth analysis about the State of the Nation’s Economy before Nana makes a final pronouncement on it. He has to know how much of the oil revenue is accruing to the nation on daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly basis. You remember the period when a small amount of money could have been used to buy a flow barometer but the moribund NDC government, for unpatriotic reasons settled on a measuring rod. We do not know the amount of money that was siphoned into people’s pockets and accounts as a result of this deliberate policy.

But Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo has been emphatic that Free Education will be the fulcrum of his Administration. That does not mean that he is going to neglect other sectors. No, he will not. The NDC has made dubious judgment payment its top priority by putting it in the budget. But Akufo Addo is saying, he will repudiate such judgment debts tainted with corruption and put moneys to be saved from such non-payment into education. He will pay only debts awarded by the courts of competent jurisdiction after such claims have passed the litmus test by going through due process. He will cut down on frivolous expenditure by reducing the size of his government. For example, the NDC doubled the amount which went to the Presidency after its first year in office. Nana will never do that. Akufo Addo will never approve a whopping sum if C1.2billion to renovate one government bungalow. Neither will he approve an upfront payment of $265 million to a dubious foreign company as insurance for a non existing $1.6 billion suppliers’ credit. Akufo Addo will also not sanction jamboree trips like the one embarked upon by top members of the NDC administration and their girl fiends to La Cote d’Ivoire during the final of the CHAN Competition in the early part of the NDC’ administration.

In addition An Akufo Addo led Government will never sanction the rate at which NDC baby Ministers with sharp canine and other appointees are looting our treasury with impunity by buying mansions, filling stations and other properties. They are chopping and grabbing property with both their hands and legs. Alex Segbefia, Ama Benyiwa Doe, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, John Abu Jinapor, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, Hanna Bissiw, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and many others. The President himself is the chief culprit having bought a private jet for his brother and a state bungalow in the name of his brother. All such amounts when put together could be a source of funding for the free SHS Education

Proper Mechanism will be put in place to check incidents of over and under invoicing to generate funds and check funds from ‘fleeing’ from our national purse.

Again, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo and the NPP do not claim to be the repository of all knowledge. They will continue to do consultations with our development partners and Civil Society. The party is aware of the existence of Civil Society Education Manifesto which has been validated by state holders with the Forward by Cardinal Appiah Turkson of the Catholic Bishop Conference and Ghana Peace Council. The party will not hesitate to consult the document and apply its recommendation where and when necessary. The New Patriotic Party (Nnipa Pa Party or Ameyo Tuwo Party) started implementation of Free Basic Education at a time when nobody gave it a chance of success. The Policy has come to stay. Article 25 Paragraph {C} of Ghana’s Constitution states “Secondary Education in its different forms, including Technical and Vocational education, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means and in particular, by the progressive introduction of Free Education”

What better time to start its implementation than now that the country has struck oil. We should remember that the oil deposits are not inexhaustible. And as I have already stated, we cannot postpone to tomorrow what we can do for the youth of our country today. The Progressive introduction of Free Education should start now, for a journey of a Thousand Milles begins with a single step. A beginning must be found somehow.

It is not going to be all rosy at the beginning. Granted, there will be challenges. But the success of any purposeful leadership depends to a large extent on the rate of conviction of the person at the saddle of affairs. When Marin Luther King embarked on his crusade to get Discrimination based on skin pigmentation eradicated from the American Society, many were those who criticized, opposed and even put impediments on his path. He never wavered in his conviction, knowing that one day little white boys/ girls will join hands together with their little black brothers and sisters to sing the song,” My country, sweet land of liberty, to thee I sing”. The NDC would have asked the late Rev Martin Luther King to shut up like the disciples of Jesus Christ did to blind Bartimaeus.

Nelson Mandela began a crusade to eradicate apartheid from the South African Society. He didn’t have it easy. He was vilified, arrested and incarcerated on Robben Island. But he remained focused and became President of a united freer South Africa where there was no discrimination.

When Sett Blatter was campaigning to be elected FIFA President, he made the issue of giving more slots to African Countries in the World Cup his major Campaign Message. He won and today the Continent has Five Slots in the FIFA Organized World CUP Tournament.

Mikhail Gorbachev decided that it was time to open up the Soviet Society. He never looked back, but remained focused. His policies of Perestroika and Glasnost were enough to bring Giant Soviet Union crumble to its knees. Today, the Soviet Society (The Russian Federation and its former Allies) is better for it. These were all Great men of vision who together with Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo would look straight at a problem at hand with purposefulness and shout , “Yes, I too can fly”

When the last Foreign Ruler of the Africa Moors was forced to leave Granada the mother of the Weeping King said to his son, “Do not weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man". Therefore if a Rabbit wants to make itself a grass cutter, its ears will betray it. The NDC has shown by all intents and purposes that it has no pragmatic policy to deliver to Ghanaians. Time is running out for the party. And like the devil who wants to win souls to eternal damnation during the last days, the party is desperately in need of allies. But do not be deceived

Remain calm and see how the Lord is going to use Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo to transform the Ghanaian Society into a country where hunger and thirst, tribalism, discrimination, cheating, oppression, poverty, unnecessary strife, filth and diseases will be banished from our political dictionary. Under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, the sky will be your launching pad. Free Education for you, your children, grand children and Great Grand Children Wommpe eyi, na wope edeeben? (What else do you want if you don’t want this?) Eye Nanaoo, Nana! Nana woye bue!! Nana woye kikim!!!.

Vote NPP, Vote Nana. Daniel Danquah Damptey (Damptey_daniel@yahoo.com) 0243715297