Former President John Dramani Mahama “lied” when he said the fully-completed Community Day Senior High School at Mpaha in the Central Gonja District had been abandoned by the government, the New Patriotic Party in the Savanna Region has said.

Mr Mahama, on Tuesday, 27 August 2019, as part of his two-day tour of the region, described as “criminal”, the abandonment of some projects started under his tenure.

"I have often drawn attention to the criminal abandonment of key projects, and this is one very key example. Almost complete, a full community secondary school, can you see fire extinguishers have been installed, ready to go... I remember it is one of the World Bank-funded projects that we got. There were 23 of them and then the remaining number of 100 we were funding through government resources. And if you go round the country, you will find them at different stages of completion; some have almost been completed and yet they remain unoccupied," Mr Mahama said when he visited the Community Day School block at Mpaha in the Yapei Kusawgu Constituency, which has allegedly been abandoned.

He lamented further that: "If you look at the children in that community and other surrounding communities, they have to travel several kilometres to go and get a secondary education when a whole secondary school is just at their doorsteps. It just needs a little more to complete it and then the children would have gone into them. There are some that I know are completed but the government has not done what it takes."

Reacting to the former president’s statement, the Savanna arm of the NPP said in a statement that the Community Day SHS was never abandoned as claimed by Mr Mahama.

“For the records, the Community Day SHS in Mpaha was never abandoned as claimed by candidate Mahama. At the time the NDC was leaving office, the project had stalled for some months and was a little over 50% complete. By September 2018, the school was completed and ready to take its first batch of students but for an error from the Computerised School Selection and Placement (CSSP) secretariat,” the statement said.

It added: “Twelve teachers were posted by GES-Headquarters to the school and were introduced to the community by the DCE for Central Gonja District and the management of GES in the District. The teachers were re-assigned within the District in view of the stated error of the CSSP.

“This year, the school is part of the school choices and had its 30% catchment area covering 12 Junior High Schools in the Debre, Tulewe and parts of the Kusawgu Traditional Areas, all in the Central Gonja District. The re-assigned teachers are set to be recalled for a smooth opening when school resumes this year.”

Below is the full statement:

DEBUNKING THE LEGENDARY LIES OF JDM – SAVANNA REGIONAL NPP

The presidential candidate of the opposition NDC, Mr Mahama, has lived his word as destined. He has successfully executed his long-held tactic of falsifying every national agenda for partisan political gains. Mr Mahama’s penchant for falsehood appears to have peaked in recent times. A statesman is expected to be measured in putting out anything that is presented to him. Much so when you have a group of serial liars who have professed in manufacturing tales in recent times around you. A gang of individuals who lie as though they were cursed to do so.

But we the people of Gonjaland say Candidate Mahama must credit us with some modicum of respect and intellect. We cannot be disrespected in this manner at all times.

This was the same then-President Mahama, who disrespected the Gonjaland Youth Association Congress in 2016 by rather detailing the late Amissah-Arthur to a purely Gonjaland affair in Kpembe, while roaming on the streets of Ho.

The same Mr Mahama addressed a delegation of chiefs from Gonjaland on a courtesy call to him as President in English yet spoke Twi to a similar delegation from Tain in the same chair. The same Candidate Mahama, who today addresses Twi journalists instead of his people on his home soil in Daboya. You cannot under any circumstance continue to disrespect your own people in this awkward manner. It is so far clear that Candidate Mahama sees us in Gonjaland as election-winning machines but not to develop us.

ABANDONED COMMUNITY SHS

In the Central Gonja District, Mpaha to be specific, Candidate Mahama palpably lied to the cameras after visiting a fully-completed Community Day SHS he left uncompleted. Mr Mahama claimed the project he spent four good years to do just about 50% was one of the abandoned projects of his past incompetent government. Even the sight of the fully-completed structure could not prevent candidate Mahama from changing his well-rehearsed lie. Mr Mahama commissioned a few Community Day SHSs that were not anywhere close to what he saw in Mpaha. Is it not the case that Candidate Mahama would have commissioned the same in 2016 if it was at this stage?

For the records, the Community Day SHS in Mpaha was never abandoned as claimed by candidate Mahama.  At the time the NDC was leaving office, the project had stalled for some months and was a little over 50% complete. By September 2018, the school was completed and ready to take its first batch of students but for an error from the Computerised School Selection and Placement (CSSP) Secretariat.

Twelve (12) teachers were posted by GES-Headquarters to the school and were introduced to the community by the DCE for Central Gonja District and the management of GES in the District. The teachers were reassigned within the District in view of the stated error of the CSSP.

This year, the school is part of the school choices and had its 30% catchment area covering 12 Junior High Schools in the Debre, Tulewe and parts of the Kusawgu Traditional Areas, all in the Central Gonja District. The re-assigned teachers are set to be recalled for a smooth opening when school resumes this year.

For any candidate, who claims to be a son of the land, but failed to complete and put to use a single Community Day SHS in his home region to come back with such lies to his own people after all the votes he enjoyed from us is so repugnant. Is it not shameful that in 2016, about 20 of such schools were completed and put to use across the country without a single one coming from the home region of the then-President Mahama? Is it not insulting to return to your own people who have voted consistently for you and your immediate family with such lies?

THE LIES ABOUT DAMANGO WATER PROJECT

In Damango, Candidate Mahama elevated his storytelling to the sacred palace of our revered Yagbonwura. He peddled plain falsehood in his desperate attempt to claim credit for the water project in the capital city – Damongo. After a shambolic late entry with a low-patronised event, Candidate Mahama threw caution to the dogs and ventured into a territory he knows nothing about.

For the records, there’s no single trace of any credible document for approval by either parliament or cabinet for the Damongo water project during the tenure of former President Mahama. We challenge Candidate Mahama and his group of paid propagandists to produce a single document to that effect. Our checks from parliament show no committee was presented with any document for consideration. We have been informed that just at the eve of parliament breaking for the 2016 election, an attempt was made to place a paper that was not discussed at any committee level before the house but was rejected. We see this as another attempt by the former President to deceive Damongo people and Gonjas at large at the time. Is it not rather insulting to have a former President rule for eight (8) good years before thinking of getting water for the biggest city in his home region? How did Mr Mahama sleep throughout the 8 years when the overload of the Gonjaland had no water to drink?

For emphasis, Nana Addo and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s Damongo water project is being financed by the Deutsche Bank, and to be executed by Biwater. All the processes leading to the approval have gone through all the stages and at any stage, the public was made aware as the case has always been. Why was the John Mahama one being done in the secret? The answer is, it was never being done, period. Let the NDC tell us the source(s) of funding and the company that was/is in charge of their phantom project. Let Candidate Mahama be reminded, that in September 2016, in responding to Nana Akufo Addo’s pledge to the King of Gonja to bring water to Damongo, He reminded Nana Addo that he sent water to his hometown Kyebi. Joy FM tweeted his response to them when asked that the Damongo water project was ongoing.

Did Candidate Mahama actually say in Bole that he and his NDC never lied to Ghanaians? Per the logic of Candidate Mahama and his NDC, the promise of a one-time NHI payment was fulfilled. The promise to build 10 Teacher Training Colleges across the country was done. According to the latest conman in town, the 200 SHSs he promised to do were completed after his miserable four (4) year mandate.

As a former President of the Republic, Candidate Mahama and his NDC inherited a number of projects from the government of the then-NPP under His Excellency President John Kufuor, but blatantly refused to continue them.

The Salaga ultramodern District Hospital was abandoned by the incompetent Mahama and his NDC.

The affordable housing project in Sanzirgu, a suburb of Tamale, was abandoned after 2008.

The Kukuo ultramodern market project was abandoned by the incompetent NDC.

 From the above narrative, it is abundantly clear that Mr Mahama did not only waste the time of the chiefs and people of Gonjaland, but also that of the entire nation. Mr Mahama succeeded in wasting everyone’s productive time for the past 2 days with the hope of any unlikely alternative to this current good governance we are enjoying.

Candidate Mahama has proven his critics right. He has confirmed the long-held notion that he is incapable of providing any superior solutions to the myriad problems confronting us as a people. Mr Mahama is a deception and cannot do anything better than the tales told.

Say No to Mahama in Gonjaland.

Say No to NDC in Gonjaland.

God Bless us all.

.....Signed.....

Mohammed Issah

(Director of Communication, SAVANNA REGION-NPP)