Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading
Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has asserted that the
government is doing some "election mathematics" by restoring the
allowances of nursing trainees.President John Dramani Mahama, on Tuesday
announced that his administration will restore scrapped allowances of trainee
nurses.
He also revealed that new trainee nurses who are yet to be put on
the students loan scheme will be placed on the cancelled nurses allowance
scheme.
This is in spite of his (President Mahama's) earlier assertions
that his administration was not going to restore the allowance even if it meant
the NDC losing the 2016 election.
According to the president, a technical
committee set up to review allowances for nursing trainees has recommended
payment of an abated allowance with a possibility to migrate them onto the
Students Loan Scheme.
Addressing trainee nurses as part of his five day
campaign tour in the Brong Ahafo region, he said; “the committee recommended
that since we are yet to amend the law to put our nursing and midwifery students
on the students loan scheme, we should also put them on the
allowance.”
The allowances were withdrawn a few years back after
government complained they limited intake by nursing training institutions. It
was further argued that it was unfair for nursing and teacher trainees to
receive allowances when other tertiary students didn’t enjoy same.
It was
however, met with much resistance from some students who rely on the allowances
to support themselves in school.
The opposition New Patriotic Party also
waded into the fray.
Running mate to the NPP's Flagbearer, Dr. Mahamadu
Bawumia, in reiterating the party's position to restore the allowances for
trainee nurses and teachers when voted into power, said governtment's decision
to scrap them was senseless and imposed needless hardships on students and
parents.
Since the withdrawal, the government has been praising itself
for taking a prudent decision which resulted in an exponential growth in
enrollment figures at nursing and teacher training schools across the country,
thereby expanding access nursing and teacher training.
But it appears the
agitations borne fruit with the setting up of a committee to advise on a more
favorable resolution for the trainee nurses.
Per the committee’s
recommendation, 34,500 students who are currently pursuing various levels of
health professional training across the country will receive a payment of GHc
150 a month.
Speaking to the issue on PeaceFM's
"Kokrokoo" Wednesday, the senior journalist said; “It’s clear-cut
that there’s some election mathematics going on…when your message is no loud and
clear, it’s not clear. When it’s clumsy, that’s what happens; no
coherence." |
Another co-panelist on the show, Kwamena Duncan, who is the Central Regional
Secretary of the NPP, opined that the decision smacks of a government growing
increasingly desperate to win over voters.
He held strongly that the move
is simply to pander to the public in order to secure votes for the
elections.
Questioning the logic in government's decision to scrap the
allowances a couple of years ago and reintroduced them barely two months to a
general election, Kwamena Duncan urged Ghanaians, particularly nurses, not to
fall for the tricks of the Mahama administration.
“...it is so clear;
so obvious. There’s no doubt about it…I am telling you they’re seeing defeat
looking them in the face. And that is why they’re doing all the things that
they’re doing but it is already gone. As for the NDC's case, it is no longer
tenable,” he stated. |
