A group calling itself Bawumia Must Win (BMW) in the Northern Region has released a statement reacting to an earlier one by the Northern Regional Secretariat of the NDC accusing government of “highjacking health institutions” in the country, asking for the NDC to produce evidence to substantiate the allegation.
The group in the statement refuted the claims by the NDC, calling on the general public to treat the it with the contempt it deserves, adding that the statement could be described as “skewed propaganda” by the NDC.
Below is a full statement:
BAWUMIA MUST WIN (BMW) NORTHERN REGION RESPONDS TO NDC NORTHERN REGIONAL SECRETARY
On 29 September 2023, Northern Regional Secretary of National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mohammed Abdul Salam through a press release made baseless accusations against the government and New Patriotic Party (NPP) with regards to admissions into Health Training Institutions which we (BMW) want state categorically that all those allegations are fabrications and lack substance.
According to the NDC Northern Regional Secretary “NPP government has undermined our educational institutions especially, at the pre-tertiary level, and is now focusing on destabilizing our tertiary institutions particularly in the healthcare sector”.
He added that the government has hijacked 30% of admissions into the various public health training institutions and aside the 30% quota reserved for government, MMDCES, ministers, NPP party executives, among others besiege the offices of the principals of the public health training institutions to demand admission offers from the remaining 70%. He added that the principals who do not comply with those party members requests are tagged as anti-government and earmarked for victimization.
As part of his allegations, he also asserted that the teacher and nurse trainee allowances are in arrears for nineteen months because government has failed to pay it as promised.
In response to that, we urge the public to disregard those unscrupulous and shameless fallacies concocted by the NDC Northern Regional Secretary and treat them with contempt they deserves.
First and foremost, there is no single health training institution in the country in which the current government hijacked even 1% not to talk of 30% of its admission. Therefore that allegation made by the secretary is absolutely a skewed propaganda which is far below belt and we are challenging him to mention one institution where that is taking place if there is any.
To the best of our knowledge, all those training institutions have their criteria of selecting qualified applicants for admissions and no external force can compel them to compromise their standard as as such, all the nurse trainees in the various institutions were selected base on merit. In view of that, NDC as a party should apologize to the students of those institutions.
Moreover, no single principal of the set institutions has ever been tagged as anti-government not to talk of being earmarked for victimization as he claims and if there is any he should mention that principal’s name.
Finally on the teacher and nurse trainees allowance, H.E John Dramani Mahama as the then president together with the NDC in government then scrapped it off even without any effect of COVID-19 and Russia-Ukraine war on the economy with a promise of building 10 new colleges to maximize the intake in their first 4 years in government but ended up without building a single new college.
The students are reasonable to appreciate that the government owes them arrears but with a genuine reason which is far better than when there was no hope for them at all.
In conclusion, we calling on all nurse trainees and the principals to hold the feet of NDC to fire to either provide evidence to substantiate their claims or render unqualified apology so that it will serve as deterrent to all the political party leaders to desist from dragging the names of their institutions in gutters for cheap political gains.
Issued by..
Yakubu Abubakari (Afasco),
Communication Director of BMW-NR
0549297976
Signed by:
Hafiz Ziblim Mandeiya,
Coordinator BMW-NR
