Mahama makes u-turn over trainee allowance cancellation

The flag bearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has made a dramatic U-turn on a decision he took in 2016 not to pay teachers and nurse trainees’ allowances.
According to the former president, should he win the December election, he would maintain the allowances which are being paid to the beneficiaries by the current government.
“You know that it was a very critical issue in the run-up to the 2016 elections. What I had said was we were going to migrate the health trainees and educational trainees to the student loan scheme. Now what I have said going up to the 2020 elections is that we are going to let the status quo remain. It means that we are going to continue paying trainee allowances, but we will improve the student loan and adapt it so that it serves the same purpose as the allowances.
“So, we will increase the amount under the Student Loan Trust [Fund], and then, instead of giving it to you as a lump sum, we will give it to you at regular intervals, so that you continue to use it for the things you use it for. So, once we have done it and it’s attractive and it’s good enough for you, then we will now do the migration onto the student loan scheme. So, for now, if I become the President on January 7, 2021, we will maintain the status quo. It means that, we will continue to pay the allowances, and when we have improved and made it attractive for all students to go for it, then we will now do the migration onto the student loan scheme. So that’s my position on it as of now,” he said in his one of ‘Let us talk with JM’ series.
These statements are in sharp contrast to the position he took in September 2016, ahead of the election that sent him and his party packing from then Flagstaff House, a development which appeared shocking to the NDC, owing to their self-confidence that the poll was a cool chop for them.
In 2014, the Mahama-led government scrapped the teacher trainee allowance. The decision met strong opposition from the trainees who went on demonstrations to register their displeasure.
In response, the NDC government at the time said the policy of trainee allowances was to be replaced by a student loan scheme, which was available for all degree awarding institutions.
Though beneficiaries of the allowances shot down the explanation from the government and even threatened to vote against the party, the Mahama-led administration did not give a hoot, and even called the bluff of the agitators
For instance, then President Mahama, in a tweet on September 8, 2016, barely three months to the election he lost, spoke on the issue of teacher trainee allowances.
He tweeted: “On the matter of trainee teacher allowances, better to lose on principle than win using falsehood. We’ll not reverse the decision. #UCC Forum.”
Following flag bearer John Mahama’s U-turn to maintain the allowances which the Akufo-Addo government has restored, social media is awash with comments questioning the policy direction of Mr Mahama.
Some comments spoke to the inconsistencies in his speeches, using the current one on the allowance as a classical example.
However, at a news conference yesterday, the National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, while confirming that his boss, indeed, would maintain the allowances, also said in few days ahead Mr Mahama would announce to Ghanaians his policy direction.
That was not the main focus of the press conference held at the party’s national headquarters in Accra, which was addressed by a former appointee under Mahama, Felix Kwakye Ofosu.
The gathering was to address President Akufo-Addo’s jab that all the infrastructure fantasy of the NDC existed in their famous Green Book.
President Akufo-Addo was speaking at the commissioning of the first phase of the Tema Motorway Interchange Project, when he said: “We made a pledge to the Ghanaian people to expand and improve the road network while closing the missing links in the network.
“We had to make this pledge because we know that the so-called unprecedented infrastructure development of the Mahama administration was fantasy existing in the Green Book and not on the ground,” he added.
Felix Kwakye Ofosu, addressing journalists yesterday, described as an “untruth” the claim by the President. He cited examples of projects in the Green Book and its locations on the ground.
However, he rather blamed the media for reporting the statement by President Akufo-Addo over their Green Book, saying the press knows the fact and should not have fallen for such a claim.
As part of attempts to shoot down the statement by President Akufo-Addo, which seems to have hit the party harder than expected, the party distributed copies of the Green Book to the media that made it to the press conference yesterday.
As if that was not enough, the National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, literally begged the media to capture portions of the book in their reports to enlighten the citizenry.

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