By Philip Tengzu
Wa (UW/R), May 20, GNA – Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has assured of introducing a free tertiary education policy for Persons with Disability (PWDs) if he elected the president of Ghana on December 7, 2024.
“A lot of the disabled are also very sharp, smart, and brilliant but they don’t have the help and so we are bringing in free tertiary education for disabled people in Ghana,” he said.
Dr Bawumia said this in Wa at the weekend during a meeting with Islamic clerics as part of his campaign tour to the Upper West Region.
The successful implementation of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy had offered an opportunity for people who, otherwise, would have dropped out of school due to financial challenges to have access to secondary education, he said.
Dr Bawumia, therefore, expressed the belief that the introduction of free tertiary education for PWDs would enable them to have access to tertiary education and training, irrespective of their financial status.
Some 1,000 special education teachers would also be recruited at the start of the free tertiary education for PWDs policy.
He was confident of the success of the policy, if he was given the opportunity, following the successful implementation of 33 policies as a Vice President, including the Free SHS and the Digitalisation agenda such as the Mobile Money interoperability.
Dr Bawumia also touched on the restoration of the Arabic teachers’ allowance, diversification of the country’s energy sources, supporting the mining sector for the country to get the best out of the nation’s natural resources as other policy interventions.
He said agriculture was a priority, hence he would transform the sector through commercialisation, mechanisation, improving access to credit facilities, and irrigation farming as the northern sector of the country had a comparative advantage.
Dr Bawumia also reiterated his stance against the LGBTQ+ as being against the religious beliefs, social values and culture of the Ghanaian people.
“I want to make it once again very, very clear on the issue of LGBTQ. Our Quran doesn’t accept it, and we will not accept it. I will not accept it as president of this country.
The Bible doesn’t accept it, and our African traditional values don’t accept it. So, we will not in any way, no matter the consequences, accept it,” he said.
Sheikh Ahmed Yakubu, an Islamic Scholar and Deputy Regional Imam of the Al Sunnah Wal Jama’ah, commended the Vice President for declaring his stance against the LGBTQ+, saying: “… It is against our Quran and Hadith, so I thank you very much and I commend you for that.”
He appealed to the Vice President to use his office to facilitate the accreditation of an Islamic Training College being constructed in the region to help in the training of quality Islamic teachers for the country.
Mr Kwabena Agyapong, Senior campaign aid to Dr Bawumia, Mr Dan Botwe, the NPP election 2024 campaign chairperson, Mr Sulley Sambian, Chief Executive Officer, Northern Development Authority, and Mr Carlos Ahenkra, Member of Parliament for Tema West, were among the members of Dr Bawumia’s team during the tour.
GNA