John Mahama
‘I am saying that Ghana must not introduce Free SHS on the whimsical promise of a desperate politician. Many mistakes have been made already by countries in Africa already with Free SHS’ were the words of then President John Mahama during the last rally of his party before the elections that exited him out of office.
Today, he is trying to come to terms with the reality of the Free SHS policy; his crooked and mischievous efforts at thwarting it having failed.
The internet and its archival feature continue to expose the NDC as its leader criss-crosses the country to convince Ghanaians to allow him to return to correct the blunders he committed when he was in charge of the country.
Free SHS was one of the issues which he used in his campaigns against the election of the man who eventually scaled the odds and unseated him.
Continuing on the Free SHS tangent, berating its present form because an outright condemnation of it as he did earlier won’t help him may well become his Achilles Heel. Parents, especially mothers, cannot trust the safety of the Free SHS policy in the hands of the man who said it was unfeasible to implement.
So much money was invested in the anti-free SHS campaign, one of them especially standing out prominently in the mind game. A woman claiming that the project would contaminate the quality of education was a regular feature on television screens. She obviously did not understand the concept but was exploited by the political sponsors of the commercial.
During his party’s last campaign at the International Trade Fair Centre, La, in Accra, he alluded to in an earlier paragraph his attack on the Free SHS policy was vicious. He appeared to have literally gone for the jugular of the man who was contesting him for the top job in the country elusive as the effort was anyway.
Describing the Free SHS as a whimsical promise by a desperate politician was enough to tell Ghanaians when this man turns around now to talk about continuing with the policy he lampooned that he cannot be trusted.
The capital outlay is too much for the policy and for those who can pay for their children, the current arrangement does not make it possible for such persons to opt out of the gratis policy are the latest words of the former President as he finds in the policy a soft spot.
Should he win, he has said that private sector schools would be included in the Free SHS policy. For someone who does not have a clue as to how to fund such a behemoth of a policy, it is only appropriate to ask him how he intends funding the additional load on the policy with the incorporation of the private sector schools.
One of the tests for deceit is inconsistency in expressions.