John Dramani Mahama, the leader of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), claims that he will not use hollow campaign promises like the ruling New Patriotic Party did when they sought to seize power.
He believed that Ghana’s economy was in poor health, thus it would be challenging for him to keep his exaggerated claims.
“Since the economy is in a terrible place, I am unable to guarantee that salaries will rise and other benefits will be provided to everyone.”
“I don’t want to be like those dishonest people who came and promised you heaven and said they would build factories in every district, they would build dams in every village, they would give every constituency one million dollars a year, I’m not that kind of person,” he explained.
When the opposition leader met some pre-tertiary teachers in Tamale during his “Building Ghana” tour, he made this statement.
He acknowledged that he was unable to guarantee an increase in teachers’ pay, but said he had taken note of the challenges that educators, especially those in pre-tertiary education, encounter on the job, which depletes their pay.
Mr. Mahama stated that a large percentage of teachers decline posts in rural towns because there is insufficient housing, signaling that his government would see to it that a sufficient number of teachers who are deployed to rural communities had housing.
He clarified that as there is no housing available for teachers in rural areas, those who are posted there live in larger cities and spend a large portion of their income on daily commutes to the remote communities.
As soon as he assumed office, he promised to make sure that all interested parties were informed about the precise state of the nation’s economy and were discouraged from making irrational demands.
