Education Brought Me Here – Veep

THE VICE President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama has said he attained his current status in life because of the formal education he had during his childhood days.

Commending education, he said he is a clear example of how education can turn fortunes around for the poor and most vulnerable in society.

“If you are looking for the benefits of education, then you should not go further because I am a clear example of what education can do,” the Zongo-born Veep said.

The number two citizen, who claimed to be from a poor background, said but for the education he had in his youthful days, there was no way he could have become the Vice President.

Alhaji Mahama, who was addressing a section of Muslim worshippers at the Kumasi Central Mosque where he joined hundreds of Muslims to worship last Friday, said the gap between the rich and the poor could be narrowed through education.

He therefore urged Muslims to use their resources to educate their children to make them prominent people who could play vital roles towards the proper development of the country in future.

The engineer said the only inheritance that parents could bequeath to their children in this computer era was education, stressing that Muslim parents were mandated to educate their children.

“You will do your child and for that matter the entire country a great disservice if you fail to send them to school,” he pointed out.

The Vice President cited poverty as the major enemy debarring the proper growth of the country, and called for a united front to fight it.

He admonished the citizenry to shun their political, religious, educational and social backgrounds and rather unite as one people with a common destiny to fight poverty, insisting that they had the power to do so.

Alhaji Mahama also mentioned jealousy as one of the problems in the country and cautioned Ghanaians to forgo it in all their endeavours.

He described jealousy as a disease which every human being should try as much as possible to avoid being infected with, since those who were already infected by it were not benefiting from it.

“What right have you, a mere human being, to question what Allah has ordained?” he quizzed, adding, “Allah blesses the one he wants at his own time without consulting anyone; hence the need for Ghanaians to shun jealousy.”

The KNUST graduate, who is among the 19 persons vying for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearership slot, took advantage of the opportunity to officially announce his candidature to his Muslim brethrens in the Garden City, saying, “I am in the NPP race”.

He said as Vice President, he has been adequately trained by the President to take over from him, insisting that he was the experienced and right person to lead the NPP, and for that matter Ghana, after President Kufuor leaves office in January 2009.

“I am the chief apprentice and since my boss is leaving, I am the right person to take over from him and continue with his good works,” he stated.

Sounding optimistic about his chances in the race, Alhaji Mahama promised to embark on a well-planned campaign, devoid of insults, to win the flagbearership slot at the party's delegates congress scheduled for December 22, this year.

He advised his fellow aspirants to desist from politics of insults and be decorous in their campaigns, reminding them that they all belong to the 'Elephant family'.

Alhaji Mahama, who is the only Muslim among the aspirants contesting for the flagbearership position of the party, appealed to Muslims in the country to assist him in prayers, adding that he was counting on their support.

From Fred J. A. Ibrahim Jnr., Kumasi