Free SHS has come to stay, I won’t cancel it – Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama has dismissed claims that he will cancel free senior high school programme if he becomes president.

He described such comments as political gimmicks.

“There is no truth in that, it is just a political gimmick free SHS has come to stay,” the presidential candidate of the Nationa Democratic Congress (NDC)  said when he was addressing the clergy in Kumasi on Monday, November 11.

The New Patriotic Party had accused the NDC and John Mahama of plotting to cancel the free SHS programme.

For instance, Majority Leader Alexander Afennyo-Markin said that the National Democratic Congress were fighting the passage of the Free Senior High School Bill with their conduct in parliament leading to the indefinite adjournment of the House.

Afenyo-Markin says that the opposition lawmakers have targeted the Free SHS  Bill.

Afenyo-Markin further accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of engaging in lawlessness by occupying the side of the Majority in the House again during proceedings on Thursday, November 7.

He also accused the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin of supervising lawlessness by the NDC lawmakers.

Addressing a press conference in Parliament on Thursday, November 7, he said “The speaker supervised chaos …clearly the NDC is on a war path, they want confusion and they want lawlessness in this country and all these are being supervised by Mr. Speaker.

“The speaker is setting the country on fire, we were disappointed with his non-reconciliatory manner during his press conference. We call on him to demonstrate statesmanship, we want him to know that although we were not happy on the day he was elected, it wasn’t the NDC that put him there but members of our side. Mr Speaker is hurting democracy…how can the speaker say he respects the constitution but he will not subject himself to the dictate of the constitution.”

Speaker Alban Bagbin adjourned Parliament indefinitely for the second time. On Thursday, November, 7 when the House reconvened after an earlier adjournment on October 22, the NPP caucus in the House were not present in the Chamber, leading to the Speaker’s adjournment.

“We have no business before us to transact…In view of the failure of the business committee to sit as a result of a refusal of those who requested for a recall, we are once again adjourning the House…I proceed once more to adjourn the meeting indefinitely,” Bagbin stated.

“We respectfully request that, upon recall of the House, the following urgent government business be deliberated upon and transacted including any other business that comes before the House,” the Caucus said in a memo to the Speaker.

However, after Bagbin had heeded to the Caucus’ plea, the NPP MPs failed to be present in the Chamber on November 7, and did not present the business order for which they had wanted the House to be recalled.

Leader of the NDC caucus in Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson explained that his side of the House were present at the Business Committee meeting only to find out that the NPP MPs on the Committee did not show up.

Speaking to the media, shortly after the adjournment of the House, Ato Forson noted that although he reached out to the NPP on the matter, no MP responded.

“This morning at about seven o’clock, we showed up at the Business Committee meeting and we noticed that the NPP members of the Business Committee once again failed to show up.

“I personally called the Committee clerk and I was informed that she is out of the jurisdiction and no one had called to inform her about the Business of the day. I was worried and reached out to the NPP side to have an indication as to what their plan is, no one responded,” Ato Forson explained.

Source:3news.com