The Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, says beneficiaries of the free secondary school policy will remember President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during the 2020 polls.
He insists President Akufo-Addo envisioned and implemented the policy.
There has been controversy over who implemented the policy after the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama said he launched the policy in 2015.
Mr. Mahama during his tour of the Upper East Region insisted that he started the free SHS policy before President Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took over.
“We started the programme and the NPP came and continued it. Unfortunately, the implementation has been very poor, and so it ended us in double track,” Mr Mahama stressed.
But Mr. Oppong-Nkrumah said: “The millions of Ghanaians impacted by the free SHS program do not have short memories. They know it was envisioned and started by President Akufo-Addo. They will speak on December 7.”
“As far back as 2008, President Akufo-Addo sold free SHS as a game-changer. He has been consistently consistent. In him, we have a leader who sees beyond political convenience.”
He these comments via a post on his social media handles on Thursday, November 26, 2020.
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo says Mr. Mahama is engaging in a campaign of deception in the build-up to the 2020 polls.
President Akufo-Addo insists Mr. Mahama is telling “lies” to hoodwink Ghanaians into voting him back into power.
“They (John Mahama and the NDC) said that I was deceiving Ghanaians, and that it was a vote-buying gimmick and that even if it will be possible, it would take about 20 years”.
He continued, “Not long ago, he said that if he had GH¢2 billion, he wouldn’t use it to pay school fees, but rather he would use it on something profitable. Today, he says that he (Mahama) introduced Free SHS. Are we going to allow the former president to come back to power through lies and deception?”
