So Free SHS Not A Ruse?

So free SHS is a possibility and not a ruse after all? Having been demonised by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) when it (free SHS) formed the centerpiece of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) campaign ahead of the last elections, today those behind the attacks see things differently. The announcement a couple of days ago about the intention of government to implement a limited free SHS scheme is as interesting as it is eye-opening about the true quality of the ruling party, political opportunists with no regard for decency and morality. We recall the thousands of Cedis and time the party expended in throwing dust into the eyes of Ghanaians about what at the time, in its estimation, was the nonsense about a free SHS and above all, its impossibility. Today the party has made a spectacular about-turn about what it despised vehemently and in one instance, engaged a woman from Accra Central to condemn and tip some children to speak against anything delivered free of charge, especially education. Some educated persons including selected journalists, ready to dance to the tune of the payer, were paid to argue in favour of a so-called quality education and not gratis SHS. Whatever that meant, the distressed NDC at the time was consumed by wanton hatred for the affable free SHS mantra sweeping across the country like wildfire during the Harmattan season on savannah grassland. So what has changed since then? The ruling party is desperate in the face of a declined confidence level among the electorate and would do anything to shore up its dwindled support base. The short memory tag President John Mahama has tagged Ghanaians has been exaggerated by the ruling NDC. They (Ghanaians) cannot forget the vilification of the free SHS mantra of Nana Akufo-Addo so soon. The memory is still fresh to be forgotten. To think that they would forget so soon how much the ruling NDC condemned the policy is to consider them deficient of wisdom. We do not think that Ghanaians are unable to winnow the truth from lies. They are only patient who would give whoever is fooling them a long rope at the end of which they take an irrevocable decision. It is not a fallacy that the promise of a limited free SHS as now being touted by the NDC propagandists is not driven by a sincere desire to bring succor to the distressed people of Ghana and to enhance education, especially among the financially challenged, but to score cheap political points at the polls. The ruling party has proven over the years that for them, using unethical trickeries to be declared so-called victors in polls are more important than taking the country to new levels of development. Just as the other models � Metro Mass Transit, National Health Insurance Scheme, School Feeding and Capitation Grants � have failed in the hands of the NDC, the free SHS would suffer a similar fate. After all, the implementation is hinged on ill-motive and so cannot yield positive dividends. More so, certain statutory payments cannot be made by the government, how is it going to fund free SHS? Under the current administration, dare we say that the policy is not implementable; Ghanaians must not be hoodwinked into thinking that something good is on the way.