Spokesperson of the Vice President, Dr Gideon Boako has pooh-poohed former President John Dramani Mahama's claims of being the initiator of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

To him, per the audacity of Mr Mahama's recent assertions, it will not be surprising to hear him boldly claim that he (Mahama) assisted Jesus Christ to carry the cross as the latter was being led to his crucifixion.

He questioned how the NDC flagbearer can lay claim to the policy when empirical evidence shows the opposition party, when in government, sponsored the airing of over 40 adverts against Free SHS.

“In fact NDC MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga went to the Supreme Court to stop President Akufo-Addo from implementing the Free SHS Policy. The NDC shouldn’t push us to remind Ghanaians what they did to stop the implementation of the Free SHS policy . . . Ghanaians have not forgotten; NDC sponsored Mahama Ayariga to go to the Supreme Court to stop President Akufo-Addo that he cannot implement the Free SHS policy,” he mentioned.

“Some of the utterances of Mr Mahama is worrisome. Have you seen how Ghanaians are mocking him on social media for saying that he started the Free Senior High School Policy? People are even mocking him that Mahama will very soon say that he carried the cross of Jesus for him because he did everything,” he said.

John Dramani Mahama courted controversy when he asserted that the Free-SHS programme was started by the NDC government in 2015.

He said the current government poorly implemented the programme, which compelled them to adopt the double-track system and that he would abolish it when voted into power.

“We started the programme and the NPP came and continued it. Unfortunately, the implementation has been very poor, and so it ended up in the double track. I assure you, my countrymen, that within one year, I will cancel the double track,” Mr Mahama stressed at Tuobong, a community in the Tempane District of the Upper East Region.

Commenting on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Dr Gideon Boako recalled how the former President, after the introduction of the Free SHS policy by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2017 said that he would not invest 2 billion Cedis into the Free SHS policy if he had the money.

“Mahama was complaining that President Akufo-Addo was using the country’s reserved oil money for the implementation of the Free SHS policy, but he forgot that those in the villages are part of the oil money . . . you said that the Free SHS policy was not possible unless after 20 years,” he recounted.

To him, the sudden turnaround of former President Mahama about the Free SHS policy is based on the fact that the successful implementation of the policy will make him lose the 2020 general election; hence, his claim to have started it and promising to make it better when he comes to power.