Madam Ernestina Naadu Mills, wife of late President John Atta Mills, has made an impassioned appeal to Ghanaians to vote for President John Mahama on December 7.

Recounting how her husband’s dream of transforming the country’s economy was cut short by death, Madam Naadu Mills urged Ghanaians to vote for Prez Mahama to enable him continue the Better Ghana Agenda of the late President.

Madam Naadu Mills expressed confidence in the ability of President Mahama to make Ghana a better place, saying: “I trust John Mahama”… to deliver a “Better Ghana” for all Ghanaians. She made this known in a advert, which was aired on Joy FM last night.

Analysis:

With barely 14 days to the December 7 Elections, the race to Ghana’s highest political office has intensified, with the main contenders, NDC’s President John Mahama and NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo, travelling across the length and breadth of the country to sell themselves to the electorate. Both candidates have made a lot of promises, which they say will help transform Ghana’s economy into one of the best in the world and help make life better for the citizenry.

Education

It is the Free SHS policy, which is aggressively and relentlessly being espoused by the NPP’s Nana Akufo-,Addo, that is the talk of town. At least 60% of all political discussions analyses of the December Elections has been on Free SHS.

The policy, which when implemented will make Senior High Schools free in the country, has been positively received by many Ghanaians, a situation which is threatening to derail the NDC’s campaign. Accordingly, the NDC led by President Mahama himself, has described the policy as populist, and a fraud, which will do more harm than good to secondary education.

While the NPP argues that instituting free SHS is necessary now in order to ensure that every child, no matter their economic background, has access to senior secondary education, the NDC is of the opinion that making secondary education free now will lead to a decline in education standards at that level. The NDC has also stated that in line with the 1992 constitution, free education must be fully implemented at the basic level before Free SHS is considered, but the NPP has insisted that it must be implemented now in order to ensure that the lack of money does not hinder any Ghanaian child from going to secondary schools.

Health

Both parties are also sparring hard on health, with the NPP accusing the NDC of destroying the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The NDC has rigorously denied the charge, sressing that it has done a lot to improve healthcare under the Better Ghana Agenda.

Economy

The economy has also come into focus, with the NDC touting, strong economic growth and what it says is the most sustained single-digit inflation in the nation’s history. The NDC also points out that the the general living conditions among workers in the country have improved tremendously due to implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure, which it says has raised the wage bill from about GHC2.4 billion to nearly GHC7 billion. The NPP however rejects the view that the economy is better, noting the cedi has had a phenomenal decline against the dollars, while, according to the party, single-digit inflation is not reflecting in the prices of goods and services.