Henry Nana Boakye aka Nana B
The National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, aka Nana B, has said the youth in the country should never believe that former President John Mahama is capable of maintaining the teachers and nurses trainee allowances restored by President Akufo-Addo after the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration had cancelled it.
He said when given the chance, the former President would cancel the important social intervention policy, as he has no commitment towards the arrangement.
Nana B was reacting on behalf of the NPP Youth Wing following the former President’s comment that he will sustain the payment of allowances to trainee teachers and nurses if he is elected President in 2021.
The same Mr. Mahama had cancelled the policy which saw many poor and vulnerable students benefitting over the years, and it had to take President Akufo-Addo and his NPP government to restore it.
“Inasmuch as we find the sudden U-turn by Mr. Mahama on this important national issue curious, it brings closure to the political debate on the matter and vindicates the decision by the Akufo-Addo-led NPP government to restore teacher and nursing trainee allowances,” he said in a statement.
Nana B said “the youth of this country cannot forget the intransigence of the erstwhile Mahama administration on this matter and the sheer callousness that characterized the NDC’s decision to cancel the trainee allowances.”
“At the time ‘dumsor-dumsor’ was killing local businesses, with Ghanaians reeling under the many terrible economic decisions of the NDC government, John Mahama decided to cancel the allowances which hitherto eased the burden on teacher and nursing trainees,” adding that “not even the chagrin and cries of these frustrated trainees could make the Mahama regime reconsider that terrible decision.”
Nana B said in the face of mounting agitations on the matter, the then President Mahama called the bluff of everyone and in blazing arrogance, told the Ghanaian people publicly that he would never restore the allowances to trainees even if it would cost him the elections.
Besides, he said the NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, even said the payments were senseless and wondered why the NDC for political convenience is now saying it would maintain the policy.
“The National Youth Wing of the NPP would want to remind former President Mahama that Ghanaians are very conscious of the antics and schemes the NDC is employing in its hunger for power. Never again would the youth of our country be hoodwinked by empty, lofty and desperate assurances of a group of people whose main aim is to win political power and preside over the wanton dissipation of our country’s resources.”
Nana B said since the restoration of the trainee allowances in September 2017, about 200,000 trainees had benefitted from the life-saving monthly stipends and in the 2020 fiscal year alone, GH¢357 million is being paid to 48,000 teacher trainees, whereas GH¢336 million is being paid to over 49,000 trainee nurses as allowances, adding that between September 2017 and January 2020 at least a whopping GH¢1 billion had been paid to the trainees.