Apparently, following the implementation of the free SHS by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration, the minority NDC operatives gathered momentum and called uncountable press conferences with the view to discrediting the programme.

Sometimes, one cannot help but to convivially applaud some of our politicians for their incredible adroitness in systematic propagation of propaganda intended to either hoodwink or proselytise unsuspecting Ghanaians to accept their parochial agenda.

In fact, I was quite emotional watching a video clip of young and precocious sixteen year old girl who was honestly voicing out her fears of losing out on her aspiration of attending the Free SHS, should someone who does not fancy the policy is elected on 7th December 2024.

Honestly, I was so impressed with the unassuming young girl who has an ambition of becoming a nurse and entrepreneur in the future.

During the school vacation, this young industrious girl would spend about GH45 to prepare sweets(toffees) and accrue a profit around GH55 a day.

Unfortunately, the unpretentious young girl is not at the voting age yet and has therefore urged her well-wishers, parents, and siblings to vote for whoever has the Free SHS at heart in order to have the opportunity to attend the Free SHS in the near future.

I do empathise with the young girl; I am of the opinion that any future leader who does not like the idea of free secondary education can consciously abandon the well-received Free SHS policy implemented by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration in 2017.

I recall in one of the NDC’s numerous campaigns against the Free SHS, I sighted a weird inscription on my maternal uncle Oliver’s ‘kum yen preko’ demonstration placard, which read:’ we don’t need Free SHS’. “It’s 419……..it’s a scam!!”.

I became numb momentarily and nearly passed out on seeing Uncle Oliver’s incoherent and somewhat preposterous demonstration placard.

I thought I was dreaming. But I was not. I was wide-awaked. ‘Wonders shall never end’, our elders say.

My dear reader, I could not believe that my maternal uncle, Oliver, would have the temerity to deny his children of Akufo-Addo handsome gift of Free SHS.

Tell me, my dear reader, which parent or guardian can resort to such irresponsible action?

I was in the state of puzzled countenance. A whole lot of thoughts were going through my mind.

I soliloquized repeatedly: ‘is it the same Uncle Oliver who begged me a few years ago to pay for his children school fees?

Honestly stating, Uncle Oliver’s idiosyncratic posturing shows how some Ghanaians could easily give in to the gimmicks of the manipulating politicians.

I recall prior to the 2016 general elections, I turned down my maternal uncle’s relentless appeals for some help towards the payment of his children school fees.

The seemingly punitive, albeit conscious decision was based on the fact that my maternal uncle bizarrely rejected Akufo-Addo’s 2012 Free SHS offer and went ahead and campaigned and voted against such an advantageous policy.

I must admit, back then, I never thought I violated any accepted moral standards for rejecting my uncle’s appeal for help to pay for his children school fees after turning his back on a handsome offer of Free SHS.

But who says that my maternal uncle changed his ways during the 2016 general elections?

In fact, my maternal uncle was amongst millions of impoverished Ghanaians who were astonishingly brainwashed by the cunning and manipulating politicians to reject the Free SHS offer during the 2016 electioneering campaign.

And, after campaigning and voting against the apparent poverty alleviation Free SHS during the 2016 general elections, my maternal uncle turned into Oliver Twist; he asked for more, on top of his three children who were going to benefit from the scheme.

Strangely, my uncle was aggrieved that the policy did not cover his two older children, who were in forms 2 and 3 when the policy commenced.

If everybody else had voted the same way as Uncle Oliver did in 2016, I am not sure any of his children would have benefited from the Free SHS at all.

The fact remains that my uncle Oliver, the ‘we don’t need Free SHS’ placard brandishing geezer, whose three children benefited from the Free SHS has pocketed not less than GH57,000 over three years (GH19,000 per child).

Based on their track record, it won’t come as a surprise at all, if the future NDC government decides to cancel the Free SHS altogether.

If you may recall, during the 2016 electioneering campaign, former President John Dramani Mahama was captured on tape emitting vehemently: “Hey! That Ghana must not introduce Free SHS on a whimsical promise of a desperate politician”. “Many mistakes have been made by countries in Africa already with Free SHS.”

He lamented again in 2020: “The government has budgeted 2 billion cedis for Free SHS for this academic year”. “If you have 2 billion more to spend on education, would you spend all of it on Free SHS, so that even when people can afford to pay, they don’t have to pay?”

Given the circumstances, observers can draw the inference that Mahama does not fancy the Free SHS and therefore he is not ready to spend huge amount of money to run the policy.

If you may also remember, it was the erstwhile Mahama administration that cancelled/collapsed the Nurse’s Allowance, the Teacher’s Allowance, SADA, GYEEDA, NHIS, the Maternal Care, the School Feeding programme, the Mass Transport System, amongst others.

I, for one, do not anticipate the worried young intelligent girl and her likes benefiting from the Free SHS policy should Ghanaians make a terrible mistake and hand over the poverty alleviation Free SHS policy back to whoever does not fancy the policy in the near future.

K. Badu, UK.

k.badu2011@gmail.com