Feature Article of Friday, 23 March 2012
Columnist: Tamakloe Kojo
Kojo Tamakloe
It has been about two years since Nana Dankwa Akuffo Addo was unveiled with a lot of fun fare as the Presidential candidate, known as flag bearer of the opposition NPP. That is a lot of time for him to have been able to develop a vision and policy frame work accompanied by the strategies to be used to accomplish them . That would ,after he and his team have sat down and diagnosed the ailments that afflict Ghana as a developing country and therefore the most likely cures to get it moving to become whatever vision he would have spelled out for the country.
Nkrumah our first leader had a vision to make us a proud African people and nation . In that light he sought a United States of Africa summed up in the Independence day statement The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked with the total liberation of the continent He therefore put programs into place that will achieve the status and at a rapid pace. As we were mostly illiterate , and without capital he introduced mass education and fee free education to produce educated people and the requisite manpower he needed for rapid development. In this science and mathematics were subjects that were encouraged and so produced the local doctors, engineers, architects, etc. No field was left untouched .He went on to quick start as many as 200 new industries that would in the first instance serve as job avenues for the citizenry while creating a middle class for a future take off. Africa was to be the ultimate market place for the manufactured products which was why he pursued the African Unity concept.
Construction work was all over the place , with well structured neighborhoods. Ghana national Construction Corporation was formed to absorb the engineers and artisans to construct the many works while gaining experience for the future Agricultural units , Commercial farms and dams were started to ensure food security but later abandoned by the UP/PP/NPP
Today we are supposed to rejoice about fee free education in SHS , which in the first place is Not an original idea but a re harsh of what the UGCC/UP/PP declared white elephant and a socialist or communist idea and hail Nana Addo for it . Should you ask questions ,then the NPP s supporters do what they do best, insult you or label you a tribalist or a foreigner . The question remains what is the over all vision of the fee free SHS scheme ?
When NPP left power there was a huge debt and up to today children are still going to school under trees. A lot of the schools are seriously under resourced and teachers poorly paid and trained . The whole education system lacks direction and focus . What should the JSS be doing and so what will the SHS be doing ?In the light of this we argue about the length of the SHS 3 or 4 years as we point out the quality is below par . Why allocate so much of the scarce resources to a scheme that will not generate an immediate income ? Where or how are we going to get the funds from when we are aware our Western donors to whom we have turned our independence to are suffering financially and are borrowing themselves . The British PM just met with the USA president and the theme was on how to balance the budget.
Mr Flagbearer , the time has come to start a new agricultural revolution so Ghana and Africa becomes food sufficient and food secure. That money can be used to train the JSS dropouts in agricultural science or other trade skills and given start up capital . That money can be used to subsidize fertilizer and tractors to increase agricultural output. That money can be channeled into poultry farms to give us protein in our diets. That money can be used to develop cattle production and fish farming .That money can be used to help the fishing communities improve the fishing gear to get better catch of fish. That money can be used for dams and building silos for extended food production and food storage . We do not need kenkey politics because there was insufficient rainfall. With that we save a lot of foreign exchange that can be used to import CAPITAL goods to add value to our raw materials
Mr Flag bearer , you went round the country on a Listening tour . Did they not tell you about housing shortage? Can you not use that money even if it were in the form of loans to alleviate the 2 million housing shortfall ? You did economics so you know supply and demand . Ghanas population is increasing and the populace instead of living in slums like Sodom & Gomorrah, need descent homes. Those children from Sodom & Gomorrah and its likes will not benefit a twit from the Fee free education, because they are hungry and because of the home environment . Their parents need jobs so they can afford to make choices for their children to get out of the ghetto
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NPP Flag Bearer, Nana Akuffo Addo What is he up to?
