HOW PRESIDENT JOHN MAHAMA FAILED NORTHERNERS – A CLASSIC CASE OF YOUR OWN KILLING YOU SLOWLY (PART ONE)

 
HOW PRESIDENT JOHN MAHAMA FAILED NORTHERNERS – A CLASSIC CASE OF YOUR OWN KILLING YOU SLOWLY (PART ONE)

IDDI MUHAYU-DEEN’S FOLDER

It is a known fact that all the three regions of northern Ghana have, hitherto, shown considerable support to the electoral fortunes of the NDC more than any other political party in the country. This is amply evidenced in the votes the NDC has enjoyed from the good people of the north over the period. It is also true that throughout history, these three regions have been the most deprived in the country as they lag behind in all human departments as well as in the area of infrastructure development. 

Unfortunately, very little is seen from the managers of our national economy to arrest this disturbing inequity. The narrative of the north has almost always been one of gloom and doom with no end in sight despite the enormous potentials of that part of the country in terms of human and natural resource endowments. It is also worthy of note that, the NDC, which is the luckiest political party to have enjoyed the ginormous support of northerners is rather the party that has done very little to better their lot. 

This is in spite of the fact that the NDC/PNDC has had the LONGEST STAY in office; having ruled this country for well over 26 years. Simply put, the NDC has woefully failed to reciprocate this good gesture and has thus, been very disappointing to the very people [northerners] who have always stood for them at all-time and against all odds. It appears that the NDC only sees the relevance of northerners during general elections where they use various political tactics including propaganda manoeuvrings and tribal incitements to woo unsuspecting northerners into supporting the party, after which, they ignore them. How pathetic!

For instance, it would be recalled that in the run-up to the 2012 polls, the NDC flagbearer, Candidate John Mahama campaigned rigorously to northerners to vote for him because he was one of them and therefore claimed to be in a better position to address their challenges. After using this as a trump card for his electoral victory, the President and his government have not only neglected northerners but have also succeeded in making life unbearable for the ordinary Ghanaian northerner. This piece takes a CRITICAL ASSESSMENT of the performance of the NDC government in relation to the party’s commitment towards the welfare of northerners and by extension, the development of northern Ghana. 

ON EDUCATION

(THE NORTHERN SCHOLARSHIP) 

Undoubtedly, if there is one area where northerners have been short-changed greatly under the administration of their own, His Excellency John Mahama, then it is the area of education, particularly, government’s handling of the age-long northern scholarship regime. Indeed, the plight of “northern students” at the second cycle institutions in the 3 northern regions over the non-payment of their feeding grant arrears cannot go unnoticed. Consistently, the Heads of these institutions have had to CLOSE DOWN all the over 83 Public Senior High Schools in the northern part of the country for some weeks because the John Mahama government wouldn’t pay their feeding subventions.  

Interestingly, President John Mahama himself was a beneficiary of this northern scholarship by virtue of his northern status as he himself indicated in his book entitled, “My First Coup d’ etat” where he says that, he was compelled to leave the luxurious Achimota School in Accra for a secondary school in the northern region over financial concerns. This move, the president says, allowed him to enjoy free education up north by way of government’s significant subventions to northern schools. 

Yet, he is now collapsing this famous northern scholarship due to his government’s deliberated failure to pay these subventions to the schools, which have astonishingly, remained in arrears for months and years under his presidency. This worrying development has led to consistent destruction of the academic calendar of the affected schools as the students are made to sit at home for weeks because they couldn’t be fed if they were in school. Meanwhile, their southern counterparts consistently enjoy the luxury of uninterrupted academic season. Yet, they are all expected to write the same exams and be judged by the same yardstick or scheme. How unfair! 

Why is President Mahama being so INSENSITIVE to his own northern brothers and sisters? Why is the president jeopardizing the future of these over 94,000 ‘vulnerable students’ in the north through his nonchalance? Has the president soon forgotten about the plight of his own, which he used a trump card in 2012 for electoral advantage? For a government that campaigned on the promise of affordable and quality education, this falls absolutely flat on the faces of students and parents in the three northern regions and smacks of crude deception by their own. 

TEACHER TRAINEE ALLOWANCE 

One other cudgelling issue of concern to northerners has to do with President John Mahama’s decision to unilaterally SCRAP the teacher trainee allowance against all odds; a policy that had existed for well over five decades; with northerners being the major beneficiaries. This is due to their high level of deprivation and the fact that a lot of them could not directly afford the cost of University Education. 

The trainee allowance was thus, meant to serve as a cushioning stimulus for these trainees against the rising cost of teacher education in the country so that they could also attain tertiary education. Unfortunately, these trainees, many of whom are northerners are now being denied of this great mileage by no less a person but their own brother, President Mahama. What an irony!

OTHER BIZARRE TREATMENT METED OUT TO OUR TEACHERS 

The government of John Mahama, having unilaterally scrapped the trainee allowance, is also making it extremely difficult for the products of our Colleges of Education to be absorbed automatically into the public sector; a policy that had existed from time immemorial. This is as a result of a new licensing regime for “fresh teachers” that government is rolling out.  The few teachers, who are lucky to gain employment into the public sector are made to work for years (in some cases, 3 years and more) without a receiving a penny (salary). And when eventually, government decides to pay them, they are paid for JUST 3 MONTHS because of the prevailing government policy (introduced in 2013) not to pay salary arrears beyond 3 months across the public sector. This of course, is either one of the IMF conditionalities OR a strategy to steal from the ordinary Ghanaian worker. 

As if this is not enough, government has again introduced a new directive from this academic year, which seeks to prevent teachers from pursuing further studies to upgrade themselves academically and professionally. Per this policy, before a teacher can pursue further studies, either through Distance Education or Sandwich module, he/she has to serve for a minimum of 4 years and also obtain the necessary CLEARANCE from the respective Regional Directorate of Education before the commencement of such programmes, which can ONLY be pursued on Saturdays and Sundays anyway. Failure to strictly abide by this, would mean AUTOMATIC FORFEITURE of one’s employment contract with the Ghana Education Service. 

Consequent to this, all Directors of Education in the country have been instructed NOT to process any certificate of any member of staff (teaching or non-teaching) who has acquired a higher certificate but had not fully respected this Regulation. Absolutely incomprehensible! The only reasonable and inevitable conclusion that can be drawn from this unpopular move is that, government is broke and can no longer carry the burden of having to pay the salaries of these teachers upon their promotion or upgrading hence the need for these draconian restrictions. It also means that President Mahama doesn’t take the plight of teachers seriously nor sympathize with them. How pathetic!

Meanwhile, there is every indication to show that, overwhelming majority of the students/teachers pursuing these Sandwich and Distance Education Programmes are from the three northern regions of the country. This is partly because there are very few Institutions of Higher Learning in the northern part of the country; hence, teachers in these regions who wish to remain at post and still undertake further studies have no option but to do so via Sandwich or Distance Education Programmes from some of the nation’s reputable institutions like UEW, UCC, UG, KNUST among others. 

It is therefore abundantly clear that, this latest policy by the John Mahama government to virtually “collapse” the famous Sandwich and Distance Education Module in relation to teacher education, would greatly affect “northern teachers” and shutter their dreams of seeking to upgrade themselves academically and professionally. This is the damning legacy, President Mahama, who himself is a northerner, wishes to be remembered for. How sad!

ISSUES WITH BASIC EDUCATION

Regrettably, it is nowadays, no more newsworthy to hear of the several unending issues with our basic education system due to government’s failure to honour its statutory financial commitments to schools at this level. Indeed, under the presidency of John Mahama, the Ghanaian media landscape has been replete with such disturbing reportage which includes among others, the non-payment of capitation grant arrears leading to acute shortage of basic teaching and learning materials like teachers’ notebooks, chalks, textbooks, classroom registers and other instructional materials. 

Teachers and heads of these institutions are essentially being compelled to either improvise or buy these resources from their meagre salaries. The recent example involving the Second Lady of the Republic and one, Madam Julliet Oppong, the Headmistress of the Kukrantumi Presby basic school sums up the frustrations of teachers at this level of education.

 

On the school feeding programme, government claims to have expanded the number of beneficiary schools by a significant percentage even though there is no evidence to prove this claim. On the contrary, there is more than enough evidence to show that the programme is dying as manifest in government’s huge indebtedness to the caterers employed under the programme. The caterers also contend that, their creditors worry them with legal suits every now and then. There are also several worrying reports regarding the quality of the food; where we told for instance that, the students are often times being fed with maggot infested food among other legitimate concerns.

CONSTRUCTION OF NEW SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS

It is most regrettable to observe that President John Mahama, the “northern president” and his NDC government have so far completed and commissioned ONLY ONE out of the so called 200 day SHS in the entire three regions of the north, where he hails from. How pathetic! Meanwhile, these are the very regions that lag behind in terms of education infrastructure more than any other. Obviously, President John Mahama couldn’t be more disappointing to his own people than he has been. 

END OF PART ONE… Make a date with me, tomorrow for the SECOND PART which shall focus on Health matters, SADA, social intervention and general economic hardships. It promises to be more revealing.

Assalamu alaikum

This piece was compiled by a concerned Ghanaian in the business of OCCUPYING HEARTS and MINDS for the love of God and country.

IDDI MUHAYU-DEEN

A Crusader for CHANGE

(0245335197)

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