In what may be described as verbal hammering, the Youth Wing of the opposition
New Patriotic Party has lambasted the National Democratic Congress government
over the decision to create an image for President Mills through what they see
as a squander of the tax payers’ money to produce the President’s photographs
and cups embossed with his pictures for distribution to schools and school
children in the country.

The group considers the project as “an absolute misplaced priority and a useless
agenda being undertaken by a government that has clearly lost total focus and
does not put any premium on the need to tackle the most relevant problems and
challenges that confront the educational sector.”
“We are particularly appalled that a government headed by an educationist of
professorial standing thinks this is the best way to expend the nation’s
resources at the time the educational sector is crying for serious attention in
many facets,” the NPP youth bemoaned in a statement signed by Anthony Karbo,
national Youth Organizer of the party.
Making allusion to some problems bedeviling the educational sector, the group
insists it does not make sense for the government to waste the nation’s
resources to imprint the image of the President on the minds of school children
in the country.

“It is a pity – and even shameful – that this is what the NDC government
considers the best reaction to the inability of pupils to identify Prof Mills as
the President of the country,” the statement adds.

Below is the full statement

The Youth Wing of the New Patriotic Party want to express our uttermost shock
and disgust at the decision by the Mills-led ruling National Democratic Congress
government to create an image for President Mills through the wasting of the tax
payers’ money in producing the President’s photographs and cups embossed with
his pictures for distribution to schools and school children in the country.
We deem this project as an absolute misplaced priority and a useless agenda
being undertaken by a government that has clearly lost total focus and does not
put any premium on the need to tackle the most relevant problems and challenges
that confront the educational sector.
We are particularly appalled that a government headed by an educationist of
professorial standing thinks this is the best way to expend the nation’s
resources at the time the educational sector is crying for serious attention in
many facets.
The School Feeding Programme is in a complete mess; some school children still
learn under trees; the promise to provide school uniforms for all school
children remains unfulfilled; accommodation problems continue to bedevil both
second cycle and tertiary institutions while teachers at all levels continue to
complain about inadequate supply of Teaching-Learning Materials required for
effective and efficient delivery of quality education.
Yet, the government that claims to care for the people thinks it makes more
sense to waste the nation’s limited resources to imprint the image of the
President on the minds of pupils and students in the country by making
photographs of the President available to the schools.
It is a pity – and even shameful – that this is what the NDC government
considers to be the best reaction to the inability of pupils to identify Prof
Mills as the President of the country.

We deem this project as a very cheap way of creating an image for the President
and making him popular among the nation’s school children who do not have him in
mind because they do not see enough concrete things in their communities with
which they can associate the non-performing President.
We want to further state that it contributes nothing to the nation’s
socio-economic development, especially educational development, to waste the tax
payers’ money to produce cups embossed with the President’s pictures and
distribute them to the school children.
This project, we are convinced, will only contribute to creating an “artificial”
popularity for the President who has failed woefully to deliver to leave a
concrete mark for Ghanaian school children to associate him with.
We find it very ironic and even hypocritical that a group that condemned the
previous Kufuor government over its decision to make some souvenirs including
mini-Ghana flags and cups available to Ghanaian school children as part of the
Ghana @ 50 celebrations do not see anything wrong wasting the nation’s money on
this useless public relations project for the President.

Finally we want to urge the President to deliver the goods in concrete terms for
all, including Ghanaian school children, to see as former President did. This is
what will leave a concrete legacy that will forever be cherished and remembered
and leave his image on the minds of Ghanaian school children. The waste of our
resources to create an image for the President and further make him popular
among school children is not in the interest of the nation, and needs to be
condemned by all who have the interest of the nation at heart.

Source: Kwabena Amankwah, Member of NPP Youth Wing Communication/Publicity
Committee. amaskwabena@yahoo.com. 0244-217504.