Member of Parliament for Assin South, Rev John Ntim Fordjour, has criticised the government over its handling of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) feeding system. He says the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been vindicated, and that Ghanaians were misled by promises made by President John Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Speaking in an interview on JoyPrime on Wednesday, May 28, Rev Fordjour recounted the earlier structure of food supply under the NPP government. “We were supplying about 70% of the food, and then 30% was directly paid to the schools to buy perishables,” he explained.
According to him, the NDC promised to change this completely. “President Mahama on many occasions stood on platforms and said, ‘We are going to send all the money directly to the headmasters so they can go to the markets and buy goat meat and the rest,’ and the students were happy,” he said.
While he acknowledged the idea sounded good, Rev. Fordjour questioned its feasibility. “I personally thought it was a brilliant idea if they were able to implement it. But again, I came back to predict that they will not be able to do it. And I said to Ghanaians boldly and clearly that I am not predicting doom, but President Mahama cannot fulfil that. And whoever becomes the Minister for Education will not be able to fulfil that promise.”
He added, “Clearly, I have been vindicated. We’ve been scammed.”
[embedded content]Rev Fordjour accused the government of failing to deliver on its word. “They came in, and the only thing they did in that regard was to send remittances to the schools directly for just two weeks. For all these months of being in power for over five months, the only direct remittance they’ve sent to the schools is to take care of them for only two weeks.”
He also revealed that the government later abandoned its own approach. “They wrote a letter signed by the Director-General of the GES and said they were going back on their words. Now the Ministry of Education is going to centralise it. They will be supplying the food to them, and now they are only going to allow them to buy only five items.”
Rev Fordjour argued that this new system is even worse than what the NPP had in place. “They said they were going to do better, but they are even doing worse than the weakness we had.”
He then warned against the rush to criticise when in opposition. “Sometimes when you are in opposition, you are so quick in criticising certain implementations, but when you get there and the reality hits you, you begin to fumble. So we have been vindicated. We even ran Free SHS better than the NDC is doing it now.”
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