STATEMENT

IN REACTION TO MALICIOUS PUBLICATIONS

AGAINST H.E. THE FORMER PRESIDENT
~~~~

The Office of HE John Dramani Mahama has taken note of a false publication by two
Government sponsored tabloids, Daily Guide and Statesman, that the former President
of the Republic of Ghana has contracted a magazine, the AfricaWatch to publish what it
says are damaging reports about the Free SHS policy.

The said false claim, which has been attributed to the Ministry of Education, has been
reproduced by some online news portals, in yet another sponsored attempt by
Government to use false and malicious publications to bring the name of the former
President into disrepute.

We wish to place on record that:
1. Neither President John Mahama nor his office has, any, interest in or working
relationship with the AfricaWatch Magazine.

2. We have not seen or been offered an advance copy of the said publication to
know what they have even written about the government’s Free SHS Policy.

3. The claims by the two government sponsored tabloids and the alleged Ministry
of Education statement are nothing but part of the usual set of lies conveniently
being told to sway the attention and interest of the Ghanaian people from the
dangerous developments of corruption, insecurity, hardships and poor
governance by President Nana Akufo-Addo.

4. President Mahama holds the enviable record as a Ghanaian leader who has done
more to broaden the frontiers of SHS education than many before him. He began
with the implementation of the Progressively Free SHS, implemented the
Secondary Education Improvement Programme (SEIP), built Community Day
Senior High Schools- the largest addition to our school stock since independence,
expanded infrastructure in hundreds of existing Senior High Schools among other
interventions.

5. Like most Ghanaians, Mr. Mahama is deeply concerned about the horrible
conditions under which SHS students are living and studying, out of which deaths
have been recorded.


6. The Former President’s suggestion and advice to Government has been a call for
a National Stakeholders Dialogue to chart a better and befitting way forward.

7. President Akufo-Addo should heed that call, instead of orchestrating attacks
based on lies and pedestrian propaganda.

This Office would also like to point out that it has noted a pattern of spreading ridiculous
untruths and a general smear campaign by assigns of government intended to malign
the former President to satisfy an obvious political motive.

We condemn this approach and demand an immediate end to it. The media must also
know that deliberately spreading such concocted falsehood and helping promote smear
campaigns against the former President is worsening the dent and the characterisation
of the Ghanaian media as unprofessional and partisan.

We encourage the Ghanaian public to continue to demand from the Akufo-Addo
government, an improvement from the poor governance it is serving this country.


SIGNED
Joyce Bawah Mogtari
Special Aide
Thursday, January 25, 2018