[ 2012-09-18 ]

Statement: Reject those who steal PPP's original ideas
Did we hear the Presidential Candidate of the New
Patriotic Party (NPP,) Nana Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo, saying on an Accra-based private
station, JOY FM, that an NPP administration will
ensure Free, Continuous and Compulsory Education
from the basic level to Senior High School?

Our immediate reaction to that statement was the
following: What happened to what has now become
the educational mantra of the NPP flag bearer –
Free Education at the Senior High School level?

In one of their advertised radio jingles, the NPP
has assembled little school children to tout the
Free SHS model being preached by the party and its
flag bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo. We are very much
aware of the effects of that advertisement and
wonder whether the shift in position on the issue
is not a demonstration of the wavering stance of
the NPP and Akufo-Addo, and the fact that the NPP
slogan of Free Education at the SHS level is not
already back-firing.

Unlike Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP, the standard
bearer of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP,)
Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, and the party he leads
position have always stood that there should be
Free Compulsory Universal & Continuous education
in the country.

In that light, the NPP’s concept of Free Education
at the SHS has become a slap in the face of the
majority of Ghanaian teenagers who cannot access
Senior High School education, because of the
obvious rot in the country’s basic education. We
suspect the NPP has observed the effect of their
mantra, hence the shift to the latest stance of
Akufo-Addo on the subject.

However, the latest position of Akufo-Addo on
educations gives him up as an inconsistent leader
with no originality of ideas. He will therefore
plagiarise the works and ideas of others in the
hope that by their so-called sheer size in
numbers, they can outmuscle the PPP- the
originator of the concept of Free Compulsory
Universal & Continuous education from Kindergarten
to Senior High School with their usual loud verbal
bouts. Nana Akufo-Addo, has abandoned his original
mantra and is now trying to illegitimately claim
legitimacy over the PPP’s concept.

But truth will always triumph over the fake and
cosmetics. That is why today despite contemporary
theories on governance, the scholarly works of
great French Scholars – such as Baron de
Montesquieu on Separation of Powers, and
Jean-Jacque Rousseau on Sovereignty – still remain
reference point for students of political science
and government.

And so history will surely vindicate Papa Kwesi
Nduom as the originator of many innovations in
Ghana state policy, one of which is the policy of
Free Compulsory Universal & Continuous education
from Kindergarten to Senior High School.

Papa Kwesi Nduom has been very consistent with his
ideas on education which he stated even before the
2008 elections. The same cannot be said of Nana
Akufo-Addo. In fact, prior to the 2008 elections
and, indeed, at the IEA presidential debate held
that same year, Nana Akufo-Addo made it clear that
his priority for free education would be at the
tertiary level.
Today the NPP flag bearer has shifted stance.

And although in their so-called transformational
manifesto, the party talks of Free Education at
the SHS level, their presidential candidate is
also saying something different. Such shift is the
forte of the man who, interestingly, says he has
what it takes to lead a transformation in Ghana.
We remember how the NPP went ballistic and almost
berserk with accusation that the NDC had stolen
their “You Matter, People Matter” theme of their
manifesto. Again, the NPP claims the NDC stole
their development agenda for the three Northern
Regions when it (the NDC) established the Savannah
Accelerated-Development Authority (SADA) to rival
their (NPP’s) Northern Development Authority
(NDA).

Today, what moral authority do Nana Akufo-Addo and
the NPP have to question and accuse the NDC of
stealing their ideas when they themselves are the
fresh culprits in plagiarism?

Throughout the subtle thievery by the NPP, Papa
Kwesi Nduom has remained a unique originator whose
actions and ideas are so succinct and
distinctive.

For the PPP, the obvious plagiarism of our ideas
is a silence admission of the greatness of the
party and its flag bearer.

Richmond Keelson
(Communications Director)

Source - PPP

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