Former President John Mahama has said Nana Akufo-Addo is confused about his position on free SHS because the president has been sleeping on the job.

"When you stop sleeping, you’ll hear clearly my position on Free SHS," Mahama jabbed during his Thursday tour of the Greater Accra Region.

His riposte was a response to President Akufo-Addo's recent comments that the former president does not know what to do with the free SHS policy and so can not be trusted with it.

During his tour of the Ningo Prampram constituency, however, Mr Mahama, who is the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), said: "I have made it clear that there are implementation problems with the Free SHS because there is no dedicated source of funding."

Also, he said, "Parents are also not happy with the double track system," adding: "Also, the quality of food the children are being given is not good, and, so, I have said that the NDC is coming to power and will fix these three things."

Mr Akufo-Addo was campaigning for his vice president, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, his protege, whom he hopes will succeed him after he leaves office in January 2025.

The free SHS policy is Akufo-Addo's most notable achievement since he took office in January 2017.

However, the NDC says it first started the policy with its progressively free SHS programme, which covered only some students.