The 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has assured the thousands of nursing and teacher trainees across the country of the full restoration of their allowances, when, God-willing, he wins this year’s elections.
Nana Akufo-Addo, who was buttressing remarks made by his running mate, Alhjai Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, stressed that “you heard Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. He has made a commitment I want to underwrite. We are going to restore your allowances in full, when we come to power, God-willing, in 2017, as we are going to do with teacher trainees”.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, the training of more healthcare and education professionals is of the utmost importance, hence the restoration of these allowances, adding that “Ghana needs all the nurses and teachers we can get, (if we are) to build a solid healthcare and educational system.”
The NPP flagbearer made this known when he visited the Pantang Nursing Training School, on Tuesday, September 20, 2016, as part of his tour of the Madina constituency, on day-1 of his 4-day tour of the Greater Accra Region.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who first addressed the nursing students, told them that with just GH¢20 billion in revenues (loans and taxes), and without the benefit of oil revenues, the NPP was able to pay nursing trainee and teacher trainee allowances.
However, having inherited an oil economy, and with GH¢200 billion in revenues, Nana Akufo-Addo’s running mate bemoaned the cancellation of the teacher trainee and nursing trainee allowances by the Mahama government.
Dr. Bawumia, in reassuring the nursing students, noted that in the very first budget of an Akufo-Addo government in 2017, “the restoration of nursing trainee and teacher allowances will be a line item in the budget. We shall restore your allowances in full. It will not be a propaganda restoration, but a full restoration of your allowances.”
We have to change Mahama
For Ghana to move forward and achieve its true potential, Nana Akufo-Addo indicated that “we have one task only. We are going to change the government of John Dramani Mahama, and bring a government that is going to work for the people of Ghana, and make sure that we have our priorities right.”
The NPP leader stressed that “Ghana is not a poor land. A land previously called Gold Coast cannot be poor. We are a nation with an abundance of human and natural resources, and, yet we are hungry. That cannot be right. We are coming to change all of these circumstances, so we can bring progress and prosperity to all Ghanaians.”
He urged the nursing students to help take the NPP’s message of hope to every part of the constituency, and vote massively for the party’s parliamentary candidate for Madina, Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Saddique.