My Husband Wasn’t Put In A Bucket Of A Pickup – Matilda Amissah-Arthur Carifies

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Former President John Mahama has been dared to publicly swear by the dreaded Antoa Nyamaa that he does not intend to cancel the free Senior High School (SHS) if voted for in 2020 as Commander-In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces.

A group calling itself the Alliance Drivers of Ghana (ADG) says it would resist any attempt to either have the policy reviewed or scrapped by any administration being it the implementing New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Mr. Kwaku Boateng Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the association noted the association rather expect the former president to promise a free tertiary education than to criticize the already implemented Free SHS policy or indicate his readiness to review it

Mr. Boateng also insisted that, members of the association and for that matter, Ghanaians will only believe in what Mr. Mahama says, should he openly swear publicly that he will not cancel the policy when voted into office.

“We are telling his Excellency former president John Dramani Mahama that he should rather develop good policies and sell them to Ghanaians. If he doesn’t have one he shouldn’t make any attempts to destroy what we are already benefiting”, he said in a statement.

The warning of the association comes as a response to an earlier statement by the former president suggesting that, he will review the Free SHS policy and make it better than what is being implemented by the NPP government.

Some people especially leaders of the ruling governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) including the sector Minister, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh have heavily criticized Mr. Mahama claiming he is planning to collapse the laudable policy should Ghanaians vote him in 2020.

But the NDC which Mr. Mahama is their flagbearer has said their leader has no plans or whatsoever to collapse the policy rather his plans are to make it a better one.

Before the implementation of the policy, the former president suggested a ‘progressively’ free and not ‘wholesale implementation’ of the policy.

He, however, started building Community Day Schools across the country of which he did not complete before the exit of his government.

But the Alliance Drivers of Ghana in a statement copied to MyNewsGh.com said “It is very sad and disappointing to see a former president who genuinely benefited from free education exhibiting undue bitterness towards the nationwide implementation of Free Senior High School by Nana Addo”.

“His Excellency John Dramani Mahama together with the national executive committee of the NDC have verbally declared their intentions to cancel free Senior High School when they win power come 2020”, the statement continued.

Background

The Okyenhene Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin II, the king of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area, had said earlier that the late Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur was thrown at the back of a pickup to 37-Military Hospital when he collapsed during a workout session at the Airforce gym because there was no ambulance.

He said, “As it’s been for 14 years, any time I go there [gym], I meet my friend and we’ll talk, shake hands and then go to our different machines…I heard ‘bang’! Three women in the gym were screaming, I left my machine and went and there lay my friend trying to find some air to breathe. We gathered around him and pumped his heart as hard as we could, yelled out his name; his wife was calling out: ‘Jesus, save him!’ I just said: ‘Call the ambulance, let’s take him to the hospital'”.

He added, “…There were about seven, eight of us, and something dawned on me… when we took him out, there was no ambulance, there was no car, we threw the former Vice President in the back of a pickup and drove off to 37. At this moment, I went back to the gym and everybody had departed. The place was empty. I just went and got my towel and my phone, called my driver to take me home”.

“I was waiting so anxiously on the phone to hear if somebody would call and say that he’s alright. The call came, and Boakye, the trainer in the gym said Osagyefo, he didn’t make it. The vice-president is dead,” the Okyenhene narrated.

From these two accounts, it is clear that someone must have confused “back of a pickup” truck with “bucket of a pickup” track. And the public furore that arose was not necessary.

Still, an ambulance service and a trauma centre has eluded Ghanaians more than one year after this tragic event.

By:.ghanaweb.com