John Mahama
Former President John Mahama seems to be out again with his characteristic posture of blowing hot and cold over certain national issues.
After several months of playing hot and cold over the Free Senior High School policy, the former President is now taking his craft to the nursing and teacher trainees allowances.
In the run-up to the December 7, 2020 General Elections while he was incumbent, Mr. Mahama defended his decision to scrap nursing and teacher trainee allowances.
He says in 2016 “I would be better off losing the December 7 polls by sticking to my principles than restoring the scrapped teacher trainee allowance for votes.”
In 2013, it would be recalled, his then National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration declared the scrapping of the trainee nurses allowance, cheekily explaining that it was to ensure the removal of some restrictions on admission to the various training institutions.
The scrapping of the allowances was met with stiff opposition from trainee nurses and teachers and a section of the Ghanaian public.
Upon coming into office, the President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration reinstated the two allowances.
And now Mr. Mahama is claiming that when re-elected in 2020, by January 2021, he will be maintaining the allowances for teacher and nursing trainees in a manner that raises questions.
“You know that it was a very critical issue in the run-up to the 2016 elections. What I said was we were going to migrate the health trainees and educational trainees onto the student loan scheme,” he says to media recently.
He added that “now, what I have said going up to the 2020 Elections is that we are going to let the status quo remain. It means that we are going to continue paying trainee allowances, but we will improve the student loan scheme and adapt it so that it serves the same purpose as the allowances. So for now, if I become the President on January 7, 2021, we will maintain the status quo.”
This lack of clarity on Mahama’s position on the allowances he scrapped paint a picture of deception.
By Melvin Tarlue