The day I became excessively livid in my life was when some kids messed me up. I’ll tell you what happened. I had business doing in Kumasi, and a very good friend of mine was generous enough to lend me his brand new Toyota Land Cruiser car for a week. As you know, most of such vehicles have the inscription “4×4” on them. I parked the car at a suburb of Kumasi to attend to some pressing needs, and on my return someone, probably a child had added “=16” to the “4×4” with a nail, producing some nasty scratches on the borrowed new car.
I was advised by my friend whose car I borrowed to re-spray the portion of the car where the scratches are and put the inscription “4×4=16” so that whoever did it would not have anything to write about; but he was wrong. A few days later I parked the car at the same spot with the new inscription “4×4=16” and went to do business as usual. When I came back, the incorrigible kids had written “correct” beside the inscription “4×4=16” with a nail, and that was what irked me so much.
Former President Mahama, some years ago, foresaw the unsustainability and unproductivity of the NPP’s Free SHS policy and vowed to review it to benefit Ghanaians when re-elected as president. This was what he said,
“ . . within the first 90-days after I take office as the President of Ghana, I will call for the arrangement of a very broad stakeholder and consultative meeting on the way forward for a better free SHS . . . The NDC shall ensure that all issues raised which are feasible and doable will be factored into the NDC manifesto.”
But in a sharp rebuttal, Vice President Bawumia, in an exclusive interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ jabbed the former president, claiming that it was senseless for President Mahama to call for a review of Free SHS.
Interestingly, after a 3-day crunch cabinet meeting, held at the Peduase Lodge a few days ago to proffer solutions to the economic hardships in the country, pronouncements of some members of Government suggest the intention of reviewing the famous educational policy which largely helped them to win the 2016 elections.
This is an interesting development which confirms the fact that JDM is a strategic thinker who sees beyond what others cannot see. Kikikikikikiki, he must be a Pharisee because he can see far.
This is the reason why I respect him very much as a leader and love him a great deal as a person; and it’s worth every moment I would spend whining about his qualities and achievements. He has written his name indelibly in the pages of the history of the great; and I have no intention to break my vow to support him in good times and in bad times.
As Ghanaians are trying to steel themselves against disappointment, they are being goaded by impatience, and criticizing this government is a task they wouldn’t like to ignore. President Akufo-Addo has risked far too much and the ramifications are hurting.
I love the Akan proverb which says that a sore that will kill a dog is the type found on its head. And one is drawn to the inevitable conclusion that: Akufo-Addo’s desultory government is in an enfeebled state; it’s not dead, and not alive. Hehehehehe, how will you say this in twi?
Even though I was mad at the kids for scratching my friend’s car, in reality, and juxtaposing it with the review of the Free SHS, they were as right as President Mahama’s call for the review of the policy because 4X4 =16.
Anthony Obeng Afrane
