NDC Must Cease their Dirty Campaign against Free SHS

Honestly, I get peeved when some politicians for their selfish and corrupt aspirations and monstrous ambitions, do intentionally sabotage any good policies proposed or put in place by their political opponents in power. My experience gained from my long stay in the Whiteman’s land, has taught me that parliamentarians, political parties and the public, for their collective welfare and the interest of the nation, do support policies put in place that have the long term potential to help achieve their objectives regardless of which party is introducing such policies.

This is the reason why we often see some members of the opposition party in parliament voting to support a policy proposed by the government or a bill proposed by the government into law. The vice versa is also seen to happen when the view or proposition by the minority in parliament is credible to attain an expected national objective which is in the best interest of the public and the nation.

Despite the Free Senior High School (SHS) education policy introduced by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his NPP Government facing some challenges, we can make it work to the benefit of all should all of us put our heads together to come up with positive solutions. We should not try to undermine the policy with intent to achieve our selfish political objectives as currently observed to be exactly what some NDC members are doing in the Northern regions of Ghana.

They have been visiting some SHS, interviewing the students, recording their problems and putting them on the news and the social media as their best reasons for condemning the Free SHS education policy with their shameless proclamations to abrogate the policy were they to win back power in 2020. Such politicians or NDC members are complete misfits in the political arena by the measure of my political yardstick.

I don’t want to play any tribal card here but I will be frank in my analysis to prove those NDC guys and their media agents and assigns like Afia Pokuaah, alias Vim Lady, who are throwing dust into the people’s eyes wrong. Yes, the people in the north can claim to be suffering from some shortages of the undue lopsided education benefits they had been enjoying since the days of the late First President Dr Kwame Nkrumah. Now, their student population has increased, so their benefits have proportionally decreased. They had only been the people enjoying free education at the expense, toil and sweat of the rest of the people from the other regions. Do those NDC people campaigning in the Northern regions promising to abrogate the nationwide Free SHS should they win back power in 2020 include those three Northern regions or they will leave them to continue to enjoy the free education?

Let me emphasize to those naive NDC politicians or political aspirants that my deceased parents of blessed memory were cocoa farmers but their children never got scholarships to study free unlike the people in the north that had, and still have, been enjoying en masse scholarship. Do they see that policy as fair? Is it not discriminately? Was that policy not an education apartheid where those of northern origin enjoyed free education but a Southerner going to school there had to pay school fees and all other school and service charges?

Former President Mahama, the most corrupt President Ghana has ever had, embezzling public funds and misusing State money to satisfy his cronies as if the money was his personal property, had the shameless guts to mock the Ashantis as having difficulty in pronouncing "R" or are simply not proficient in speaking English. Yes, the Ashantis cannot speak fluent English because they could not have the chance to enjoy free education to have free mind to learn without always worrying about how their parents could pay their school fees, provide them with pocket money, etc.

Funnily, it is only in Ghana that the knowledge of English is a criterion of a man’s great learning. Sadly, an English parliamentarian once said, "A foreigner can learn and speak fluent English, adopt the English culture, eat and behave like an English, but Englishness still belongs to the English people". Former President Mahama, please take note of that.

Don’t let me beat about the bush but to go on to cite two veritable cases to support my contention of why all the cocoa-growing inhabitants and all discerning Ghanaians should support the Free SHS for it to succeed. With a concerted effort, we can overcome any challenges facing the policy. We should be problem solvers but not to run away from them only to always look up to the Whites to provide us with everything. Even the little monetary assistance given to us by them ends up in the pockets of our corrupt political leaders of whom former President John Dramani Mahama is the unrivalled Chief.

The first case example to be cited is about one Yaw Amoako from Juaben Ashanti. Yaw is now a bit over seventy years. When I was in primary school, he was already a student of then Kumawu Tweneboa Kodua Secondary School (TKSS), now Kumawu Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School. Yaw is the son of the late Nana Yaw Donkor, of the same matrilineal lineage as me. Therefore, Yaw is my son (and he calls me father) by the Akan tradition. He had to abandon his Secondary School education when his uncle who was looking after him and his senior brother Kwame Asare, who was also a student of the same Secondary School died.

Nana Yaw Donkor, tried as he did to raise money from every source possible, could not. So in the end, even though Yaw Amoako was brilliant, he was tearfully pulled out of Secondary School. The conclusion was, his senior brother, Kwame Asare, was ahead of him so they should concentrate on him to finish his school rather than having both of them lose their education pursuit. The little money raised was just enough to support one person. Yaw Amoako then went into cocoa farming by going to "Ahafo" to take care of his deceased uncle’s farm to help cater for his senior brother’s education.

When it was my turn to attend Kumawu Tweneboa Kodua Secondary School, one of my seniors nicknamed "Lawyer", now a long time PhD holder, and also from Juaben, became friendly with me when he learnt of maternal background as a native of Juaben. One day, in the course of our conversation, he mentioned that once there was a senior at the school also from Juaben by name Yaw Amoako (Lawyer’s senior) who was brilliant academically but he wondered why he discontinued his education. From his description, it was the son of Nana Yaw Donkor, my relative. I explained why. He shook his head in pity and said, the senior was very clever.

If there was free Senior High School by then, Yaw Amoako would surely have completed his school and easily pursued further education to become somebody greater than he probably is at the moment, concluding from how Senior Lawyer testified about his academic brilliance.

The second case is about my own primary school classmate. He is one Kwasi Appiah. When we were at Kumawu Roman Catholic Primary School, he was the oldest boy and person in the class. He was older than each of the pupils in the class by a minimum of six to eight or more years, except one Dora Fetua. Dora was so grown that she got impregnated by one of the school teachers, the late Teacher Abeam Danso, when she was in class 5. She gave birth and got married to the teacher. She could not complete primary school let alone, elementary school.

Going back to Appiah, because of his age, he was moved to class 4 when the rest of his classmates were going to Class 3. This is because of his age. He was older for the class. In those days, when they move you a class higher than your classmates, they officially claimed to have "jumped" you a class higher.

Yes, Kwasi Appiah was always taking the first position in exams with one Kwame Tabi coming second. However, I overtook Kwame Tabi as of third term in Class 4 until I left for secondary school from elementary school Form 2.

To cut the long story short, once when I returned to Ghana on holiday and was being driven in my brother’s car, I met Kwasi Appiah in that stretch of road between Kumawu and Wonoo. He was carrying a pot of palm wine. I stopped to chat with him but unfortunately, the car was full so we could not pick him up. He said and I quote, "Kwasi, you know that when we were in school, I always came first and Kwame Tabi came second. But because of poverty, I could not get anyone to help me to continue my education when I completed Form 4. I am now a palm wine tapper". My eyes welled up with tears.

As brilliant as Appiah was, truly if he had someone in his family to support him, surely he could have studied further to become someone greater than simply being a palm wine tapper. If there was free SHS, Appiah could easily have gone to the University and beyond concluding from how brilliant he was.

From the above two cases cited, which can easily be verified from the Juaben Asiampa families or the records/archives of TKSS, and from Kumawu by asking for Kwasi Appiah who completed Kumawu Local Authority Middle School in 1972.

The NDC should bear in mind that their dirty politicking will take them nowhere. We have to focus on long term policies to develop Ghana rather than their short term corrupt policies where they can easily embezzle funds, purchase cars for chiefs and buy votes or rig elections.

I shall be mounting political platforms apart from preparing my memoire that will rubbish the corrupt system in place and the nonsense of the NDC and any politician who is there to wish to continue to underrate the intelligence of Ghanaians.

The NDC, be ready to face the double-portion of the Rockson Adofo that you read from. He shall not sit on the fence when our corrupt politicians and clueless NDC continue to take the people of Ghana for a ride. It is because of such corrupt and myopic people in politics, messing up the nation that the White people have no respect for the Blackman, especially the African.

If the Free SHS should fail, no one in Ghana should continue to enjoy free education or scholarship. Every parent must care for their children’s schooling and the people must take any means possible to ensure that our leaders do not steal from the public purse.

Rockson Adofo