Joyce Bawa Disclaims Reports That Mahama Will Reform Free SHS In 90 Days

Special Assistant to former President John Mahama, Joyce Bawa Mogtari, has distanced her boss from a supposed Midas that the former President promised to give to the Free Senior High School program if he becomes President again.

Responding to a backlash that has been generated over the former president’s reported promise to transform the Free SHS into something better within 90 days of returning to office as President, Joyce Bawa Mogtari pointed out a sensational spin that media reports had put on the story.

“The headline in the above story from StarrFM and which has been re-published by other portals including graphic.com.gh and ghanaweb.com is not a reflection of what HE John Dramani Mahama said at the meeting with the Ghana National Council for Private Schools. 

“As captured in the main part of the story, with a quotation from Mr. Mahama, he referred to his oft-stated position that he will host a stakeholders forum on how to better and improve the implementation of the freeSHS policy,” Joyce Bawa Mogtari wrote on her Facebook Timeline. 

She quoted the relevant portion of the story to back her disclaimer; – “Speaking at a meeting with the leaders of the Ghana National Council for Private Schools (GNACOPS) in Accra on Wednesday he noted “within the first 90-days after I take office as the president of Ghana, I will call for the arrangement of a very broad stakeholder and consultative meeting on the way forward for a better free SHS.””

The former President’s Special Assistant therefore pointed out that the different impression that reports on the issue make are false. “The impression the StarrFM story gives that Mr. Mahama will abolish or stop the implementation of the freeSHS is therefore false.”

Former President Mahama has come under criticism for allegedly promising a magical transformation of the Free SHS program, a signature program of the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

The most confrontational of the criticisms has come from the NPP, which is keen to flaunt the policy as a trump card for votes in the 2020 general elections. The NPP, capitalizing on what Joyce Bawa is calling false reportage of what the former President said, has accused the former President of wanting to scrape the policy. However, the former President’s special assistant says her boss neither promised a magic bullet for Free SHS nor hinted by any stretch of the imagination that he would scrape it if he returns to power.