Don’t push us to make short-term decisions – Samira Bawumia

Samira Bawumia has urged electorates to assess governments on their long-term decisions and not short-term interventions.

Mrs Bawumia argued that pushing governments to make decisions that only affect their four-year tenure will only breed inefficiency.

“…that is what has forced governments to pave roads in a shoddy way because you see it’s asphalted then it is a vote buyer,” she explained to Accra based Citi FM Wednesday.

The Second Lady said electorates should rather gauge leaders on the investments they make in the human resource of the citizenry.

This, she says, will affect their long-term development and in turn progress the nation and eradicate poverty.

ADVERTISEMENT

Drawing the link between education and development, she argued that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has got the ball rolling with its flagship free SHS policy.

“Recently, one of my husband’s friends that we met at an event congratulated him [government] for rolling out the free SHS policy,” she said. “He said so because it was education that turned his life around. He told us he had two other friends when he was young but because his uncle took him from the village to the city to be educated, today, he is an economist and can help those friends.”

She added that she herself is where she is now because she had access to education.

“Education is a leveller,” she stated.

She argued that if the subsequent governments sustain such long-term policies, it will help to break the culture of poverty.

“If we sustain them it will breed results.”

The NPP government rolled out the free SHS policy in September 2017 after promising it since 2008.

Currently, only first-year students benefit from the progressive roll out but it is expected to be extended to cover continuing students.