Group lauds Mahama for projects in Eastern region

Hundreds of young people calling themselves “Heroes for Mahama” have poured out on the streets of Koforidua, the Eastern regional capital, to salute President John Dramani Mahama for delivering his promises to the people in the region.

The four-hour peaceful float began from Asokore through the streets of Koforidua and ended at the Koforidua Jackson’s Park.

The participants carried placards with inscriptions such as “two more terms for Mahama”, “Kpong water project”, “Kyebi water project”, “roads and other infrastructural development in Eastern Region.”

Speaking to the media, the Public Relations Officer of the group, Mr Roland Asamoah, said the Mahama administration had many appointees from the Eastern Region occupying prominent positions.

“We in the Eastern Region can mention names such as Mr Julius Debrah, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, Mr Seth Tekper, Dr Edward Omane Boamah and Mrs Mavis Ama Frimpong,” he said.

Mr Asamoah said the Eastern Region was not left out in infrastructural development, adding that the region benefited tremendously from the first batch of the cocoa roads, community day senior high schools, as well as water projects.

As a result of the President’s commitment to the development of the region, he said the youth group had decided to campaign more vigorously to enable him to continue the good work from which the Eastern Region was getting its share of the national cake.

“We have no option but to support the President to have a second term for our region to be heard globally and to attract investors,” he added.

Mr Asamoah urged the youth not to allow themselves to be used by any political party to create confusion during and after the elections in order to protect the good image of the country’s democracy.

Meanwhile another group, ‘Students For Mahama’, is also rallying support for the second-term bid of President Mahama, by calling on students across the country to vote for his re-election on November 7, due to his enormous contributions to the education sector.

Greater access to education

Cataloguing the reasons, Mr Benjamin Alpha, a spokesperson for the group, said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government since 2009, had established 170 senior high schools (SHSs) across the country to complement the delivery of education by the 670 schools that existed in 2009.

He said 123 SHSs, which were at various stages of completion, were expected to make secondary education accessible to a huge number of junior high school (JHS) graduates across the country.

He noted that as per the Ministry of Education figures, the abolition of the teacher trainee allowance by the government opened up admission in colleges of education from 9,000 to 15,000, with the increasing numbers expected to augment the teacher deficit facing the country.

Loans to students

To reduce the burden on students in the colleges, he stressed that President Mahama directed that the Students Loan Trust Fund, be made more accessible to teacher trainees, resulting in the disbursement of about GH¢2.7 million to teacher trainees across the country.

He explained that the conversion of polytechnics to technical universities was the government’s plan to provide an enabling environment for polytechnics to offer extensive research and study which would contribute to the development of the country.

Mr Alpha advised students to carefully scrutinise the policies of political party candidates regarding education since education was the driving force for the developmental agenda of the country.

“We must subject the vision and policy direction of our leaders and those who seek our mandate to lead to critical and thoughtful analysis”, he said.