A former Executive of the Tema East Constituency branch of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described as populist, a promise by former President John Dramani Mahama, that his government will pay teachers who accept posting to rural Ghana, 20% extra salary if he is voted into office again in December.

In a write-up responding to the promise, Moshake says that the offer is a populist trick that Mr. John Mahama is using to pull votes.

“It’s such an easy-to-see-through agenda,” Mr. Stephen Ashitey Adjei, alias Moshake, wrote.

According to him, “Mr Mahama became president from 2012 to 2016 and we all know what he did to teachers, including the withdrawal of teacher trainees’ allowances”.

Moshake said the promise is nothing but a cheap carrot-and-stick strategy by a desperate man who wants to return to power after he showed his true colours when he first had the opportunity to govern the country.

“If Mr. John Mahama really has such good intentions towards Ghanaian teachers, the question is, why did he not fulfil them when he was president; better still why was he so cruel to teachers and even teacher trainees when he was in office from 2012 to 2016?”

Moshake’s response comes after the former president recently promised teachers that if he becomes president again, he will pay those who will accept posting to rural communities in Ghana, an extra 20% of their salaries.

“Teachers who agree to serve in a rural school will be paid 20% of their salary as an incentive,” Mr. Mahama promised.

But casting doubt on the promise, Moshake wrote that it is just one of the many desperate promises that the former President is making for power and that once he gets the power, he will forget about it.

“Ghanaians still freshly remember how Mr. Mahama cancelled the teacher trainee allowances and made life so hard for Ghanaian workers that everybody hit the streets to protest.

“Besides, if it comes to the treatment of teachers, the current Government has offered teacher unions about 70% increment in continuous professional development allowance, along with free laptops to teachers,” Moshake wrote.