I am not against Free SHS

 

“Free SHS has come to stay. If anyone comes to you that I, John Mahama, the son of E.A. Mahama is going to cancel Free SHS, tell that person he or she is a bloody liar.

 

“What I am against is the poor implementation that has put a lot of burden of parents,” he stated.

 

The policy  was one of the key campaign promises of the the ruling New Patriotic  Partrotic Party (NPP) campaign promise, but since its implementation some members of the NPP have been accusing the opposition NDC and the former Presidents of planning to cancel the policy when they return to power, an accusation they dismissed. 

 

Addressing the chiefs and people of Yendi, during a courtesy call on the Overlord of Dagbon, Yaa Naa Abukari Mahama during his campaign tour of the area, the former president urged Ghanaians to dismiss claims by the NPP that he would cancel the policy when he return to power.

 

 

On the recent protest by some students in the ongoing West Africa Senior High School Certificate Examination (WASSCE ), he blamed  the recent development on the politicization of Ghana's education system. 

 

"If you go around  calling  students your graduates this is what will happen , we have over politicised everything in this country including our education system" he  noted. 

 

 

Former President Mahama reiterated his commitment to ensure that all assembly members are placed on monthly salary by the new government if the NDC returns to power in 2021.

 

Currently, assembly members do not receive monthly salary but they  only take allowances during assembly meetings and  are  also offered motorbikes as a means of transportation to enhance their operations. 

 

But, the NDC fag-bearer  said he intends to change this practice by implementing  a new policy that would ensure that all assembly members across the country who were the bedrock of the local governance system are put on a better monthly salary structure just like other public office holders.

 

To be able to achieve, he said " I intend to cut down the number of ministers and reduce the number of people hanging around the Flagstaff house doing nothing  so that their salaries would be used to pay assembly members who are the fulcrum of our democracy".

 

 

He observed  that the surest way for assembly members to able to discharge their duties effectively was  to empower them by giving them the remunerations.

 

" they live in the communities with the people they serve and anything that happens in the area they call on them, sometimes if a woman is on labour in the night it is the assembly man they will call so their  work is very tedious" he noted.

 

 

The former president  also reiterated that the next NDC government under his leadership would adopt a free healthcare plan that wouldcgrant all Ghanaians access to primary healthcare in the country.

 

That, he said  would cover  CHPS compounds, Polyclinics, Clinics as well as District hospitals, lamenting that "many Ghanaians especially the vulnerable continue to struggle to renew their health insurance due to poverty".

 

He observed that the fastest way to developing the country was not putting cash in peoples pockets  but developing infrastructure in all sectors of the economy. 

 

“If someone gives you money today, by tomorrow it will finish. But if you build that hospital, the school it will be there for generations, so governance is common sense and not rocket science”, he said.