Asiedu Nketia
THE GENERAL Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, aka General Mosquito, has described the Free Senior High School (SHS) as a spectacular policy.
According to him, of all the policies and programmes initiated by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government so far, the Free SHS policy stands out as the best among them.
When asked about the best policy of the NPP government so far on Kumasi-based Nhyira FM on Wednesday morning, Asiedu Nketia stated, “The Free SHS policy is the best so far”.
NDC Attacks On Free SHS
It would be recalled that several leading members of the NDC, especially former President John Mahama and Asiedu Nketia himself, have persistently kicked against the implementation of the Free SHS initiative.
The NDC, prior to the 2016 polls, said Ghana was not in a position to implement the Free SHS policy. Some of their top members even stated that the policy could only be rolled out in 20 years’ time.
Even in recent times, former President Mahama and his team have been going about saying they will ‘review’ the Free SHS policy if they win the 2020 election. However, they have not been able to tell Ghanaians how the review will be done.
Confession Time
Interestingly, Asiedu Nketia made a U-turn and said the Free SHS was the best policy of the NPP.
Blasts NPP Again
However, few seconds after praising the Free SHS programme, the NDC chief scribe quickly descended on the Akufo-Addo administration over the same Free SHS policy.
“The Free SHS policy is good, but as usual of the NPP government, the implementation of the policy is very bad. The NPP did not consult broadly before implementing it,” he claimed.
The NDC General Secretary also said the National Identification policy comes next to the Free SHS in terms of the best policies of the Akufo-Addo government.
Besides, he criticized the NPP government for not consulting enough before implementing the National Identification policy, saying “the NPP members always behave like they are wiser than everybody.”
According to him, the Free SHS policy and the National Identification programme would have made better impact on the lives of the citizenry had the government consulted other stakeholders.
He said political parties like the NDC also has inputs to offer to help better the Free SHS policy, which is a major national policy but sadly the NPP refused to tap the expertise of other political parties.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi