Party jabs Akufo-Addo

Meanwhile the leadership of the PPP have

cited the Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP,) Nana Addo

Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the NPP as a whole for ‘stealing’ from the PPP’s Free

Compulsory & Continuous education policy.

In a strongly worded

statement signed by the PPP’s Director of Communications, the party relayed

that it was at its wits end when it heard Nana Addo on an Accra based station, JOY

FM, stating categorically that an

NPP administration would provide Free, Continuous and Compulsory Education from

the basic level to Senior High School, and wondered “what happened to what has

now become the education mantra of the NPP flag bearer- Free Education at the

Senior High School level.”

Against this backdrop, the

statement issued by Richmond Keelson,wondered whether the

shift in position on the issue is not a demonstration of the wavering stance of

the NPP and Akufo-Addo, and the fact that the NPP slogan of Free Education at

the SHS level is not already back-firing.

According to the PPP, the latest position of

Akufo-Addo on educations gives him up as an inconsistent leader with no

originality of ideas...“He will therefore plagiarise the works and ideas of

others in the hope that by their so-called sheer size in numbers, they can

outmuscle the PPP- the originator of the concept of Free Compulsory Universal

& Continuous education from Kindergarten to Senior High School with their

usual loud verbal bouts.”

The statement firmly accused Nana Akufo-Addo of

abandoning his original mantra “and is now trying to illegitimately claim

legitimacy over the PPP’s concept.”

It continued that unlike

Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP, the standard bearer of the Progressive People’s

Party (PPP,) Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, and the party he leads position has always

stood that there should be Free Compulsory Universal & Continuous education

in the country.

“In that light, the NPP’s concept of Free Education

at the SHS has become a slap in the face of the majority of Ghanaian teenagers

who cannot access Senior High School education, because of the obvious rot in

the country’s basic education. We suspect the NPP has observed the effect

of their mantra, hence the shift to the latest stance of Akufo-Addo on the

subject.”

For the PPP, the obvious plagiarism of its ideas is

a silence admission of the greatness of the party and its flag bearer.

The party opined that

truth will always triumph over fake and cosmetics, and further pointed out

thathistory will surely vindicate Papa Kwesi Nduom as the originator of many

innovations in Ghana’s state policy, one of which is the policy of Free

Compulsory Universal & Continuous education from Kindergarten to Senior

High School.

“Papa Kwesi Nduom has been very consistent with his

ideas on education which he stated even before the 2008 elections. The same

cannot be said of Nana Akufo-Addo,” the statement said stressing that prior to

the 2008 elections and, indeed, at the IEA presidential debate held that same

year, Nana Akufo-Addo made it clear that his priority for free education would

be at the tertiary level.

The PPP painted a gloomy picture of the attributes

of the NPP flag bearer wondering what he had to offer after stating a different

position from his party’s much hyped transformational manifesto.

The statement further questioned the moral authority

the NPP had to question and accuse the NDC of stealing their “You Matter,

People Matter” manifesto them, as well replacing their Northern Development

Authority (NDA) with the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) when

they themselves are fresh culprits in plagiarism.