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.
