General News of Sunday, 19 June 2016

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Nana Addo's advisors continue to let him down - Ablakwa

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

Deputy Minister for Education Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has hit hard the 2016 Flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party, saying his advisers are doing a poor and embarrassing job on informing him on matters that mostly involve education.

Nana Akufo-Addo, addressing students at the Cape Coast Polytechnic, on Friday, June 17, 2016, in the central region said when voted into power, he will convert all Polytechnics into Technical Universities.

But a deputy Education Minister in charge of Tertiary Education said: "Very sadly, Nana Addo's advisers continue to let him down. Nana Addo's sole strategy from all the media reports is to provide infrastructure to bring all polytechnics at par for a wholesale conversion."

He says the NPP flagbearer should have known that "Critical factors such as a minimum of 4 BTEch Degree Programmes in Science and Technology based disciplines, academic and professional qualification of teaching staff, stock of equipment, strategic partnership with industry and a well crafted legal regime just to highlight a few are all crucial elements that infrastructural provision alone cannot satisfy.

According to Mr. Ablakwa, "Ghanaians have not forgotten how Nana Addo's advisers embarrassingly misled him on Ghana's 2014 WASSCE performance. We have all since observed that that was the last time we heard him speak on WASSCE results."

In his statement, he made reference to "Nana Addo’s Free SHS saga where a 1992 constitutional provision was disingenuously presented two decades after as an original idea of Nana Addo thereby claiming all the credit for himself.

"We hope that this Damascus moment will permeate his party rank and file and that the next time he gets the opportunity to discuss the ongoing conversion, he will at least spare some credit for President Mahama," Ablakwa stated.