“What saddens me is the issue of feeding grants for our schools. Today feeding grants for the Northern schools have been in arrears for over 14 months. The children are being fed on maggot-infested food. How can we sit and watch this situation continue? We have a so-called Northern president who is in-charge of the whole Ghana but Northern students in schools are suffering and starving.”
These were the words of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, running mate to Nana Akufo-Addo, presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in Zuarungu Moshie in the Bolgatanga East Constituency of the Upper East Region on Wednesday.
Dr. Bawumia, who before visiting the constituency had toured the Talensi Constituency earlier in the day, criticised President John Mahama for merely paying lip service regarding the plight of Northerners in particular and Ghanaians in general.
Touching on the plight of Northern senior high school students currently, Dr Bawumia said that the situation was one thing that particularly made him sad and wondered how someone who doesn’t fail to remind people of his Northern roots, could preside over such an unfortunate situation – a situation that has lasted for over three academic terms.
“Many headmasters are dodging suppliers because they cannot pay the feeding grants; and we have a Northern president who says we should vote for him but who presides over this sad situation,” Dr. Bawumia noted.
The Mahama administration has failed to pay feeding grants to schools in the three regions of the north since the first term of the last academic year, despite several appeals by the school authorities, parents, students and the inhabitants of the North, including chiefs. The situation has given rise to students feeding on small rations of meals which are mostly said to be of poor quality as suppliers have refused to supply the schools with their food needs until the debts that have been accumulated are cleared.
The crisis has gotten so bad that many suppliers are now threatening to drag authorities in the various Northern schools to court to retrieve their monies, while some of them (authorities) have been left with no other choice than to find food for their students, rather than watch them starve.
In addition, the government has failed to pay subsidies to the schools for two terms, and this has worsened an already bad situation.
Touching on other issues which had worked against the progress and development of the North in the last eight years, Dr. Bawumia mentioned the infamous SADA loot, where officials of John Mahama’s government reportedly pilfered the resources meant for development in the North, through various shady schemes.
“Aside this situation, we have a president who presides over SADA, where our monies supposed to be used to develop the North, was stolen.
“Should we vote for John Mahama again?” he asked, a question which received a thunderous ‘No!’ from the residents gathered.
Dr. Bawumia urged the people of the North to reject the NDC and its presidential candidate as their record over the last eight years is one of corruption, incompetence and suffering.
“When John Mahama comes – and he will be here soon. When he comes and says we should vote for him because he is our brother, we should say ‘No.’ We are not going to vote for him because he is piling suffering on our people. He is bringing disgrace to the people of the North. We were never known for corruption; and he is destroying our brand,” he stated.
Dr. Bawumia also visited the Bolgatanga Central Constituency on Wednesday.
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