Tuesday,
November 6, 2012
The elephants are gathering to
re-enact the 2008 circus performance that ended disastrously, resulting in their
being chased into the political wilderness. They are gearing up, using the same
old tactics of fly-blown promises, outright lies, wild allegations, fear-mongering,
vain threats, and cacophonous rhythms that won’t turn anybody’s crank. None is
enthused by such a dry performance.
They are promising a utopia that
the electorate won’t be interested in. No lesson learnt after their 2008 electoral
disaster.
The ululation has already begun
and we can hear their shrill and ugly noises. What is missing from their
stagecraft is the kangaroo dance that characterized their 2008 performances;
but we won’t miss much. We have a hunch that they will use a new signature tune
woven around the vacuous promise of free Senior Secondary School education to re-enact
the circus. That signature tune may as well be their death knell at the polls.
A
group calling itself Creative Arts for
Change is already ululating as part of the preparations to re-enact the
scenario, trusting in the Messianic posturing of their unctuous flagbearer for
whom its leaders pledged their unflinching support last Saturday.
Made
up of the musicians, producers, actors, writers, and other professionals in the
creative arts industry who constituted the 2008 circus and energized the
nationwide carnival, the group has assured Akufo-Addo that just as they did for
him in 2008 so will they repeat in 2012.
Here
are some personalities in this group: Kwabena Kwabena, a hi-life musician; Socrate
Sarfo, a movie producer and Public Relations Officer of the Film Producers
Association of Ghana (FIPAG); and Mark Okraku Mantey, music producer.
Their
raison d’etre? Akufo-Addo’s promise of a free SHS education, which they have
agreed to propagate even without knowing anything specific to inform the
electorate about beyond what they have known it to be—a mere promise for
political convenience.
Kwabena
Kwabena cited the NPP’s intention to implement free Senior High School
education as one of the many justifiable reasons why the group has thrown its
support behind Akufo-Addo.
Ask
him for details to know what this promise is and you will be given a blank but
annoying stare. That is the problem. No one, not even the promise-maker
himself, has any concrete confirmation on how the promise will be fulfilled. A
promise is what it is—a whiff of hot air being blown about for votes!
The
circus will indeed be met with the same air of disappointment that has been the
cause of the elephant family’s political woes all these years. Probably, these
musicians are also composing a dirge on the sideline.
Contrary to the
line of argumentation adopted by the NPP followers to suggest that anybody
opposing this promise is against free education, the message reaching the
electorate is clear. It is re-echoed by Sidney Abugri in his opinion piece (“Can
Akufo-Addo steal back his thunder?” on Ghanaweb, Nov. 4, 2012):
·
Invest in the strengthening of basic education as
a foundation on which subsequent stages of formal education will be built.
Invest in the provision of adequate teaching and learning materials and
equipment.
·
Invest in adequate infrastructure at all levels
of formal education. Invest in the training of and remuneration of highly
qualified teachers as a prerequisite for improving the quality of teaching and
the rewards will take care of the rest while you continue to discuss possible
strategies for making education accessible to one and all.
These are the fundamental areas
that the NDC and critics like us have drawn attention to. Unless Akufo-Addo wants
to tell us that he is not conversant with the problems facing our system of
education, he will rush to isolate the SHS as the focus and hope against hope
of a ready source of funding it.
He is creating very good grounds
to put the cart before the horse for it to jump into. No movement expected. What
a wasted effort! And to imagine that this is the issue about which he is daring
Ghanaians to take him to the cleaners. What effrontery!
Don’t get me wrong. I value
formal education and wish that it will be made free at all levels if the
economy and our ability to manage affairs properly will allow. After all, my
children attend school where I am in the United States without my having to
bear the full cost directly out-of-pocket, although I know how my high tax
money funds that venture.
But implementing fee-free
education in the US didn’t happen as Akufo-Addo is misleading his followers to
perceive. Those of us who oppose him are wary that his approach would create
more problems than the country can handle.
Even though George Bush’s “No
Child Left Behind” policy might be seen as a solution to the problems that
necessitated that policy, a carefully analysis suggests that it has compounded
problems that would have devalued the system of education but for the
resilience of the US’ economy. We are not there yet.
Kenya and Uganda have been
implementing what Akufo-Addo has promised, but can’t thump their chests to
celebrate it as the solution they’ve been searching for to repair their system
of education. Let Akufo-Addo’s followers do some basic homework on such examples
to see things for themselves.
We in Ghana have our peculiar
problems to forewarn us about the danger ahead and must not rush into
disburdening parents of that responsibility. After all, those of us who paid
fees at all levels of our education aren’t the worse off.
The arguments that I have raised
so far aren’t against the lessening of the burden on parents and wards of the
senior secondary schools if such a promise is successfully fulfilled. Far from
that.
We agree that formal education is
good and must be provided to build the enlightened and capable human resource
base for our political economy. I wholeheartedly support any move toward
uplifting standards at all levels of the country’s education sector. What I
detest, however, is the duplicity that undergirds Akufo-Addo’s promise.
Some questions continue to nag
us:
·
What
exactly motivated this promise from Akufo-Addo? Is it because he thinks that
the economy is strong enough to shoulder that responsibility or that parents
have become so poor as not to be able to take care of their wards’ education
anymore?
·
Or
is it because by making education free at the SHS he thinks that the requisite
conditions will be created for a better human resource base for the country?
Even at the SHS level when the products aren’t mature enough to know what their
contributions to national development are—or even how their future looks like?
·
Will
an Akufo-Addo government abolish private SHS or spread the “fee-free” bonus to
them too? Or will they be compelled by his largesse to fold up? No more private
SHS to operate in Ghana when the fee-free policy begins being implemented?
More confusion in town already!! The
making of this new-fangled promise came easily but providing concrete facts and
figures to persuade Ghanaians on how that promise will be fulfilled isn’t so.
It has proved to be too difficult for Akufo-Addo and his supporters to tackle.
All we hear day-in-day-out are statements
of intent that end up exposing their promise as a mere ploy to delude (to deliberately
mislead) the voters into making an error at the polls. We will continue to tear
apart this promise.
Do you remember Chinua Achebe’s okeke bird and the hunter? Okeke says that for as long as the hunter has learnt to shoot
without missing, it has also learnt to fly without perching.
Transfer that adage to Akufo-Addo’s
promise of free SHS education and our stance. For as long as Akufo-Addo cannot
provide facts and figures to persuade us that his promise is the best solution
to a part of the country’s problems, we will continue to take him on. We refuse
to be deluded.
We shall return.
·
E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
·
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me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor
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