...And Expose
Akufo-Addo’s Free SHS hoax

In a move that will definitely surprise many
Ghanaians, a member of the NPP who has worked for Akufo-Addo for some years is
asking Ghanaians to ignore the NPP flag-bearer’s claim of providing Free SHS
for Ghanaian school children because it is all a hoax only meant to get their
votes.
Wahab Amadu, at a press conference yesterday at the
International Press Centre produced several pictures of school buildings and
classrooms in the Abuakwa North Constituency in very poor conditions and
questioned the NPP flag-bearer’s claim of being committed to education when he
did not initiate a single project as MP for the constituency for 12 years to
enhance education.
Some of the classrooms had walls and ceilings which
are almost collapsing while ply woods and cement blocks serve as chairs and
tables for the pupils. In some instances, the school children sit in the sand
which serve as the floor of the classroom.
Some of the classrooms, apart from the total state
of disrepair in which they were also had no blackboards. According to Mr. Wahab
Amadu, children in these schools are thought only songs and poems because there
is no blackboard for the teachers to write on.
Talking about the quality of teaching, he said
teaching is virtually non-existent as many of the schools had only two or three
teachers teaching from primary one to six. The head teachers of many of the schools,
he said, come to school only once every two weeks and go away.
A picture of the Kukurantumi Local Authority Primary
school shows a classroom with the ceilings almost within touching distance
above the heads of the school children. At Osiem, the hometown of the late
Prof. Albert Adu Boahene, flag-bearer of the NPP in the 1992 elections, the
Islamic Primary school there was made up of only palm fronds. Mr. Adamu told
journalists present that for the twelve years that Nana Akufo Addo was MP for
the constituency, he never initiated any educational project to help any school
in the constituency.
“So, what was he doing with his share of the MP’s
Common Fund? Nana Akufo Addo failed to contribute in any form to the education
of school children in Abuakwa for 12 years. So, if he failed the constituency,
how is he going to succeed in taking good care of an entire country?” he asked.
Mr. Wahab Amadu said though he is still a staunch
member of the NPP, he will be voting for President John Mahama in this year’s
election because he knows that Akufo-Addo cannot deliver,” he said.
According to him, in less than three years, the
Islamic school in Abuakwa North has got a brand new building thanks to the
BETTER GHANA agenda of President John Mahama (and his predecessor, late President
Mills). It is on this basis and the many developmental projects that are
springing up in Abuakwa North that he and other progressives in the NPP have
decided to cast their votes for President John Mahama this December.
. Amadu Wahab, who said he lived with Akufo-Addo for
many years said the NPP flag-bearer once told him that his only reason for
wanting to become President of Ghana is so that he too can be addressed as His
Excellency. In pursuit of this, many of the people around him already address
him as such.
He said the poor track record of Akufo-Addo as MP
for Abuakwa for 12 years during when he was the Attorney General and later Foreign
Minister is testimony that it will be a disaster to make him President of
Ghana.
“When you want to entrust the destiny of a country
in the hands of a man, who, for 12 years as MP did not cut sword for even one
project in his constituency nor did he commission any project, then you are only
out to destroy the country,” he said.
Also present at the press conference was a founding
member of the NPP in the Abuakwa North Constituency, Madam Cecilia Adjubi. Taking
her turn to address journalists, she said Nana Akufo Addo has not got the
competence to be President of Ghana and therefore also calling on progressive
members of the NPP not to waste their vote on him but vote massively for
President John Mahama in the December elections.
“Se kwatrikwa se obe ma wo ntoma, tea ni din, (if
the naked man says he will give you a cloth, just look at his nakedness)”.
Madam Adjubi said proverbially, directing Ghanaians to the Abuakwa North
Constituency if they want to see how Akufo Addo will fail Ghanaians if they
make the mistake of voting for him as President.
She said the entire Abuakwa state is in a deplorable
condition because Nana Akufo Addo, who was their MP for 12 years (1996 to 2008)
failed to initiate even a single developmental project in the constituency.
“Today, in Abuakwa North, we do not have even a “Bus
Stop” so buses park on the street. School buildings have collapsed. Some school
buildings do not have toilet facilities. People still drink from streams
because there are no boreholes to provide potable drinking water. Many of the
roads spot gaping manholes and with no development there, many of the youth
have turned to the drinking of akepteshie and playing of draught to while away
the time,” she lamented.
According to her, recently, for three days, people
from one of the villages in the constituency drank water from a stream
oblivious of the fact that the sudden sweetness of the water was due to the
fact that a corpse was decomposing in the water upstream.
“Why should people still be drinking from a stream
in this age, especially in a constituency where the MP has been for many years
Ghana’s Attorney General and later Minister for Foreign Affairs?” she asked.
According to Madam Adjubi, Abuakwa has become the
laughing stock of the country because in spite of the loyalty they have shown
to Nana Akufo Addo, he has let them down, especially as he failed to initiate a
single developmental project throughout 12 years he was MP.
“Being a good leader is not about speaking English
very well. It is not about being hailed by some of your hometown people or
party supporters. It is about meeting the needs and aspirations of the people”
she said.
“It is only under President Mills’ BETTER GHANA
agenda that we have begun to see some development. The Kukurantumi-Tafo road
which has been in very deplorable shape for almost 35years has been repaired by
the current government. The Tafo market for the first time is witnessing
renovation. Street lights have been provided in areas we never dreamt of seeing
a light. New school buildings have been built. A clinic is currently being
built at Kukurantumi. So is a vocational school. If all these are happening
under the current government, then common sense dictates that we throw our
weight behind it. That is why many of my colleagues and I are going to vote for
President Mahama this December,” Madam Adjubi said at the press conference.