‘God will bless Akufo-Addo if he used tax to educate students’ – Adom-Otchere

‘God will bless Akufo-Addo if he used tax-payers money to educate students’ – Adom-Otchere

Gideon Nicholas Day

October 27, 2023 3:36 PM

Ace broadcast journalist, Paul Adom Otchere has expressed admiration for President Akufo-Addo's use of taxpayers' money to educate students, suggesting that such a move would be deserving of divine blessings.

‘God will bless Akufo-Addo if he used tax-payers money to educate students’ – Adom-Otchere

In an Editorial on his Good Evening Ghana show on Thursday night, he pointed out that past presidents, such as Atta-Mills, John Mahama, and John Agyekum Kufuor, had access to similar resources during their tenures.

However, Otchere emphasized that if President Akufo-Addo indeed allocated taxpayers' money to educate over 1200 Ghanaians who may not have otherwise afforded education beyond Junior High School, it could be a commendable use of public funds.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Pulse Ghana

"If he (President Akufo-Addo) had taken the tax payers money to do a lot of things, he could build roads, do this... President Mills, John Mahama had access to that, Kufuor to that,” he said.

“If it is true that he spends tax payers money and to educate over 120,000 Ghanaians who could not have afforded education, they just were going to go away after JHS, if he has used Ghanaians tax payers money, you and I our money because he decides what to do with the money, because he is president, if he has used some of that money to educate each year 120,000 people so that by the end of the eight years he had educated 1.2 million people, to give them literacy and numeracy skills at SHS, then God will bless him."

Paul Adom Otchere believes that such an educational initiative, if true, would warrant blessings from God .

Paul Adom-Otchere Pulse Ghana

Meanwhile, according to the Deputy Minister of Education, John Ntim Fordjour, nearly 2.5 million students in Ghana have benefited from government's Free Senior High School (SHS) and the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) programmes since its implementation in September 2017.

In a recent development, Governemnt has stood firm against calls for a review of its existing policies, especially the free SHS Policy, despite growing pressure from civil society groups and experts advocating for a more resource-efficient approach.

The policy in question became a central point of contention in political campaigns, with John Dramani Mahama, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2020 elections, launched attacks on the Akufo-Addo government's implementation of the program.

Mahama not only criticized the current approach but also vowed to conduct a thorough review of the policy if elected as president.

During his 2020 election campaign, the NDC’s Mahama pledged to initiate the review within his first 90 days in office, emphasizing his commitment to engaging relevant stakeholders to ensure the policy's optimization.

Gideon Nicholas Day