Provide answers on ‘Free SHS’ quality and the $2b energy sector deficit – IMANI to NAPO

Energy Minister and lawmaker for Manhyia South, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, who has been presented as the running mate to the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has some key questions to answer, says Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President of IMANI Africa.

Franklin Cudjoe suggests that Dr Opoku Prempeh, a former Minister of Education, will need to address the $2 billion deficit in the energy sector and evaluate how the free senior high school policy has impacted Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Cudjoe also highlights the importance of tackling aggressive corruption, reducing significant expenditures, and urges Dr Opoku Prempeh to encourage his running mate, Dr Bawumia, to acknowledge the economic challenges faced by the country.

The flagbearer of the NPP, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, reportedly presented Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh as his running mate to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

According to JoyNews’ Presidential Affairs correspondent Elton Brobbey, the meeting took place on 25 June at Jubilee House.

During the meeting, Vice President Dr Bawumia presented his choice to the President.

Elton Brobbey clarified that President Akufo-Addo offered advice and shared his thoughts but ultimately accepted Dr Bawumia's choice.

The selected candidate is a 56-year-old medical doctor who graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

READ FRANKLIN CUDJOE’S DEMANDS OF NAPO BELOW:

So it is true, Napo is running mate to Bawumia. Thanks for confirming, folks. I think it was a difficult choice because of his notorious public comments on critical issues and posturing.

I do know, however, that he can be serious when he wants to – I admired his professionalism when he was ranking member of the health committee in Parliament under the late Atta Mills. l had been invited to appear before the health committee meeting he was chairing to testify on certain aspects of the public health bill that was inimical to civil liberties. Eventually, the bill was passed.

I was part of a small group he invited to meet over how he intended to roll out the free SHS promise after being named the first education minister in 2017. It was a difficult conversation, especially when there was no policy paper to guide the implementation of the programme. But he pummelled through the implementation amidst the imperfections. The challenges, though, have come full circle.

Napo is his own nemesis. He can be abrasive when he wants to. Now, though, he needs to be serious and be prepared to deal with questions about the wasted efforts in the energy sector, with a huge $2bn deficit in the sector. He must tell us how qualitatively he thinks free SHS has added to the country’s GDP and finally how he will deal with aggressive corruption, reduce big daddy expenditure plans and how and when he will ask his boss, Bawumia, to own up and man up to the economic decadence he has been gloriously a part of. I wish Napo and his boss well.

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