Mahama Exposed Over 1 Student, 1 Tablet Campaign

The former Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Koku Anyidoho, has called out members of the party for criticizing a promise by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to give tablets to students.

Former President John Dramani Mahama recently claimed that the distribution of tablets to students in senior high schools by the Akufo-Addo government is vote-buying bribe.

The NDC flagbearer for the 2024 general election told a special public lecture at the Wisconsin International University College, Ghana, that the government is prioritising the tablet distribution over other much more critical concerns in the education sector for political capital.

“You bring a new curriculum. The children have no textbooks in basic school for the last four years, and you think that giving pre-tertiary students tablets is more important. Of course, everybody knows the political expediency”, Mr Mahama complained.

However, in a post shared on X, on Saturday, April 6, 2024, Anyidoho accused former President Mahama and the NDC of insulting the intelligence of Ghanaians by criticising the policy of President Akufo-Addo’s government.

According to him, former President Mahama and the NDC, before the 2016 election, made the same promise of giving tablets to students.

“When some of us refuse to support the kind of propaganda that will hit hard at our hard-earned integrity, then they say we are anti-JM.

“You had the same intention so why criticize others for implementing the same policy? They should stop insulting the intelligence of the nation,” he wrote.

The former NDC Deputy General Secretary also shared a 2016 video clip of the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, explaining the promise by the erstwhile government of John Mahama to give pre-tertiary students tablets.

In the said video clip, which was from a TV3 interview 83 days before the 2016 election, Ablakwa could be heard saying, “(sic) is the e-textbooks, where we transition from the old-fashioned paper textbooks to e-textbooks on tablets.

“And he (Mahama) announced that it will be piloted and, based on the success of the piloting, that the tablets will be distributed nationwide”.

Background

On March 25, 2024, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched what the government is calling the Ghana Smart Schools Project.

The project aims at equipping students benefiting from the Free SHS policy with crucial technological skills and aligning with the government’s commitment to leveraging technology to advance education.

At the launch, which was attended by the Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; the Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum; and other highly-powered politicians and stakeholders in the education sector, President Akufo-Addo said that the project will provide students with free laptops.

“To distribute 1.3 million educational tablets to students in SHSs. That is one student, and one tablet under the Ghana Smart Schools Project. The tablets have digital content to aid research, teaching, and learning.

“At the tertiary level, Ghana is pleased to provide tablets and laptops to students and lecturers at a discounted price to facilitate academic activities. The government continues to seek innovative ways to promote STEM and the FSHS policy,” he said.