By Efo Matthew
I think the NPP is just scratching the trainee allowances issue on the surface. That issue is deeper than how many porous minds understand it!
Have we wondered why Akufo Addo has borrowed over $120 billion in just 3 years and still has nothing to show for it? These “consumption expenditures”, such as allowances for NABCO, trainee teachers/nurses, uncountable vigilantes and presidential staffers, etc, etc, account for that.
The reason Mahama was able to upgrade teacher training facilities and build many hospitals was partly because he suspended the allowances. Those allowances constituted a huge chunk of state capital, which was being doled out as comfort grants to students. In the end, they only ended up being spent on tablets and i-phones.
If Mahama now chooses to let the allowances remain, he is justified because he has built enough health and educational infrastructure out of the suspended allowances, to provide more training facilities to accommodate more trainees and give employment to nurses who pass out. Akufo Addo hasn’t built even one hospital and that is why nurses are picketing outside the Health Mnistry and getting themselves arrested.
It is just because they have no place to work, after enjoying the free allowances! It just means Akufo Addo only think about their votes and not their future. Why would you brag over allowances, when the nurses are languishing at home without jobs after collecting allowances during their training?
You can boast over trainee allowances, but the bottom line is, Akufo Addo only think about what brings him votes and not what solves problems. That is why he borrowed $120 billion in 3 years, just to pay allowances.
Kwame Nkrumah is still hailed as a hero, not because he gave out freebies or allowances. It is because of the infrastructure he built, which can still be seen on Ghana’s economic landscape. If he had given out the monies as free allowances, there wouldn’t be Akosombo, Kotoka International Airport, Tema Harbour, Accra-Tema Motorway, etc, etc!
Spending money for comfort is good, but you don’t spend your money on comfort when you haven’t taken care of the fundamentals!
9th June, 2020.
