Mahama did not start Free SHS

Residents of Kumasi, in the Ashanti region, have descended heavily on former President John Dramani Mahama for insisting he introduced the free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

According to them, they are utterly surprised about Mr. Mahama’s claim that he introduced the free SHS policy, a social intervention programme.

Mr. Mahama, according to some news reports, has claimed that he personally introduced the progressive free SHS programme into the country.

This claim has infuriated residents of Kumasi, who insists the free SHS policy was introduced by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

In a vox pop, conducted by THE NEW PUBLISHER, the respondents expressed extreme anger over Mr. Mahama’s shocking claim.

Kwaku Fosu, a shoe dealer, said Mr. Mahama should desist from the politics of lies and propaganda as the 2020 polls draws closer.

According to him, it is an open secret that the free SHS policy was introduced by President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government.

He said he was taken aback when former President Mahama was reported to have publicly claimed ownership of the programme.

Maame Adwoa, a Fashion Designer, said “Mr. Mahama and the NDC are clearly trying to steal the free SHS programme from the NPP but it will not work”.

Francis Kwakye of Ash Town, on his part, stated that the NPP introduced the free SHS programme, therefore nobody can take it away from them.

The New Patriotic Party’s flagship achievement since President Akufo-Addo was sworn into government on January 7, 2017 has been the Free Senior High School policy, which makes it mandatory that every child in Ghana who qualifies for, and is placed in a public Senior High School for his secondary education will have his or her fees and other educational expenses absorbed by the government.

It is being implemented by the Ministry of Education, under the leadership of Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, alias Napo, who doubles as Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia South Constituency.

Napo is one of the Akufo-Addo appointees that have suffered the worst forms of trial-by-media persecutions, mostly engineered by political rivals of his party.

Many believe the attacks are aimed at discrediting his achievements in the Free SHS success story. He has however remained focused and has ensured enrolment figures keep increasing each academic year.

“Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh aka ‘Napo’, the Education Minister, is the number one enemy of the National Democratic Congress”, were the exact words of Dennis Kwakwa, the outspoken Ashanti Regional Youth Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Top members of the NDC opened fire on Napo last week, whom they accused of awarding a GETFUND scholarship package to himself.

However, it eventually turned out that the scholarship was awarded to Napo in 2014 when the NDC were in charge of the management of the state.

Kwakwa, who was speaking on Nhyira FM, a Kumasi based private radio station., stated emphatically that Napo had done no wrong to be unjustifiably attacked by the NDC.

“Napo is a citizen of Ghana and MP for Manhyia South, who applied for scholarship and it was duly awarded to him because he qualified for the sponsorship.

“The NDC are making noise about this issue because they hate Napo to the core. The NDC started to hate Napo after he introduced the free SHS programme.

“The NDC consistently said the free SHS policy is not possible now but Napo put them to shame by successfully introducing the social intervention policy”.

Kwakwa said “since the successful introduction of the free SHS programme, the NDC has made Napo their number one enemy, who they are looking to destroy.

“The NDC have set numerous traps just to tarnish Napo’s image because of the free SHS policy and I am not surprised about attacks on Napo over scholarship”.