My Honest Thoughts On Mahama's Free Level 100 University Tuition Promise

1. When I heard Mahama has promised tuition free education to level 100 students, I was actually hoping it was one of those fake news. Alas, I was wrong. A ray of hopelessness mixed with anger pierced my heart instantly.

2. When in recent times, Mahama and the NDC started toning down on their criticism of Akufo-Addo's free SHS Policy [and even started propagating the policy was long started by the NDC], some of us saw through it.

3. Yes, the Free SHS was the major campaign promise that brought Akufo-Addo into power. It is perhaps, the only promise he's kept to Ghanaians since he assumed power. And regardless of the many issues it came with, the policy remains one of his government's greatest achievements.

4. The NDC's argument then was to make it progressive and to first of all, rather invest in quality infrastructure, resources and teachers. Quality over rushed quantity, they argued.

5. Fast forward, the NDC would vehemently criticise the WASSCE results of these free SHS beneficiaries. They claim the results were not a true reflection of their performance and that they were politically tempered with, to prove that quality was not compromised after all.

6. As expected of every election year, the NPP is currently doing everything to convince Ghanaians that Mahama would cancel the policy when he gets elected.

7. The NDC must therefore not make any posture to show Ghanaians they still don't align with the policy as it is. Their 24 hours economy is not making much waves as did the free SHS then. This 2024 election is crucial to them and every Ghanaian must be won over. So their attempt to align with Akufo-Addo's free SHS Policy can be excused. If you can't beat them, join them.

8. However, what is unfathomable and unforgivable is for Mahama to go ahead and promise his own version of the "Free SHS Policy" to fresh university students regardless of how much they claim Akufo-Addo and his cohorts have rapped the country's economy and that it would take time for it to be recovered!!

9. One would have thought that the major focus of the NDC [if they win power] would be to bring the economy back on its feet instead of going about promising any free thing at this state we're in as a country!! Or, could it be that the NDC is simply deceiving Ghanaians that the economy is in a big mess?

10. Here is the funniest part. Can you guess who the beneficiaries of this tuition free university education will be? It is these same "academically poor" free SHS beneficiaries whose poor results in their WASSCE they claimed were manipulated to score cheap political scores. Why would you give free tuition to an "unintelligent" student whose results you don't believe in in the first place? It doesn't make sense, does it? Well, it does make sense – connect the dots, you'll see. Or, does the NDC's claim of result manipulations was simply politics as usual?

11. This same Mahama claimed years ago that the major challenge of university graduates is the lack of requisite skills to create jobs after completing their education. So what has changed? You want to pay the school fees of a high number of your youth into a university system that we all know is not too helpful as it is, so they come out and join the bunch of their unemployed elders who passed through that same system?? C'mon!!

12. What our educational system at the University level needs is not free tuition, it is Reforms that will make students industry ready and adequately nutured to create their own jobs and supported with systems to run it successfully.

13. The greatest investments needed in our educational sector now is not free tuition at the University level. It is quality. It is infrastructure developments. It is embracing and investing in TVET, STEM and of course, Agriculture. It is taking good care of our teachers and lecturers. It is investing first in quality education at the basic levels – lest we would keep recycling, Garbage in, and getting Garbage out.

14. And the argument that the Ghc 300 million needed for the policy is nothing compared to what Akufo-Addo spent to dig a hole in the name of National Cathedral is even a non-starter. Such arguments make those who make them appear senseless and manipulative.

15. Finally, nothing actually is free. A wise man once said, if something is free and you cannot tell for sure who's paying for it, know that you're the price. Politicians don't care about you nor the system. They care about winning the next elections.

There's a Hero in you; unleash it!