Ben Abdallah Banda speaking during the programme
Vice President and flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, last Friday hinted one of his bold solutions to Arabic instructors in the Zongo communities across the country.
Alhaji Ben Abdallah Banda, who brought the Vice President’s message to the Zongo communities said, “Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia will, when voted into power as President, ensure that Arabic teachers in the various communities are absorbed in the Ghana Education Service so that they too would receive remuneration.”
As part of the bold solutions of the Vice President which touch all facets of human lives, he announced that land had been acquired in all the sixteen regions of the country for the construction of Islamic Senior High Schools.
The Presidential Coordinator for Inner Cities and Zongos, Ben Abdallah Banda, who represented the Vice President during the engagement organised by the Greater Accra Nasara Wing of the NPP at the Kanda National Mosque in Accra, held his audience spellbound as he proved to the Zongos why the NPP is a better party than the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Taking his audience through the history of the Arabic instruction programme, he said it was initiated by the NPP Government but cancelled in 2009 when the NDC came to power.
The NPP again, under the leadership of President Nana Akufo-Addo and Bawumia, has reintroduced the Arabic instructors’ programmes and made Arabic examinable at the Junior High School (JHS) level.
It was an engagement which had in attendance Arabic instructors, Islamic clerics and ethnic heads.
When it comes to showing concern for the good of the Zongo communities, Ben Abdallah Banda said the opposition party comes nowhere near the NPP.
Buttressing his assertion with facts, he pointed at the leadership of both parties and concluded that whereas the NPP can boast of Muslims at key positions of the party and in government, the opposition cannot do so.
Two Muslims who held leadership positions in the NDC previously were demoted, he disclosed, stressing that this is sufficient evidence that the NPP has the people of the Zongos more at heart than the opposition.
For the first time in the history of this country a Muslim has been appointed as the flagbearer of one of the dominant political parties in the country, he said.
Under the direction of the Vice President, he said female Muslims have been sent to Cuba to study medicine so when they return they can manage cases involving women from their faith.
He charged Muslims to vote for the NPP so that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia would work towards the betterment of the country.
The National Coordinator of the Nasara Wing of the NPP, Aziz Futa, when he took his turn to speak to the Arabic instructors, said there is little or nothing to show for the consistent support the Zongos have rendered the NDC over the years.
“Let the Zongos vote NPP and see the difference between the two parties,” he stated.
Notable speakers who graced the programme were National Nasara Coordinator, Aziz Futa; Alhaji Yusif Fofana, Government Spokesperson on Social Services; National Deputy Communications Officer, Hajia Rabiatu; Greater Accra Regional Secretary, Odarlai Parker and the guest speaker Ben Abdallah Banda, Coordinator for Zongo and Inner Cities Development.
The Arabic Instructors expressed their immense gratitude to the NPP and also commended the government’s Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, as it aligns with Islamic doctrine of “IQRA,” that’s to read, recite or proclaim.
By A.R. Gomda