Henry Nana Boakye
The National Youth Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, aka Nana B, has described former President John Mahama’s promise to absorb the full school fees of tertiary students as a ‘monumental deceptive scam’ just to woo tertiary students to vote for him.
At a press conference yesterday, the National Youth Organizer said if the former President was not able to pay utility bills of tertiary students when he was the President then it is absurd for him to now promise to pay full school fees of tertiary students which would amount to GH¢2.5 billion every year.
“The former President who is promising to pay the full school fees of tertiary students said the state could no longer support the payment of utility bills for students and went ahead to terminate it and further asked students to pay for their own utility bills,” he said, stressing that the former President was feeding Ghanaians with this monumental scam just to attract votes.
He said the former President also cancelled allowances for trainee nurses and trainee teachers when he was the President because he said the economy could not support the payment of such subsidies.
“Mahama could not pay GH¢24 million every year as allowances for trainee teachers and GH¢17 million as allowances for trainee nurses; how can he promise to pay GH¢2.5 billion as full school fees for tertiary students. This is a Mahama scam,” he said.
He said even the letter announcing the intention of former President Mahama to absorb the full school fees of tertiary students was fake.
“The letter did not have official letter head of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and was not signed by the chairman of the party, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, whose name was indicated beneath the letter,” he added.
He indicated that the former President could not even pay for his so-called ‘Progressively Free SHS’ which was supposed to benefit 100,000 day students.
“Former President Mahama promised to pay just GH¢38 out of GH¢405 yearly school fees for each of the day students but was not able to even pay that. It was this government that paid the accumulated arrears of GH¢37 million when it assumed power
“Mahama’s promise to absorb full school fees of tertiary students is just a knee jerk reaction to the announcement by the government to offer scholarships to more than 150,000 brilliant but needy students who just completed Free SHS through the Scholarship Secretariat to enable them complete their tertiary education,” he said.
The national youth organizer said it was also incredible for former President Mahama to claim that he introduced the Free SHS in 2015 on his recent campaign tour because former President Mahama vehemently opposed the Free SHS policy of the NPP, saying that it was a promise being made by desperate politicians to destroy the country’s education.
He said apart from passionately speaking evil about NPP’s free SHS policy in 2016 just before the elections, he also sponsored 46 radio and TV adverts against the implementation of Free SHS
“How can someone who introduced the Free SHS in 2015 turned around in 2016 and say evil about it. Former President Mahama does not have any credibility,” he noted.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr