Folks, on a daily basis and especially as the 2020 Election gets closer just like many other general elections, I see pictures on social media where school children are being subjective to what I call “punishment for no crime done” are they being made to hold placards with various messages in the scorchy sun anytime Presidents tour the various towns in the country.
The most embarrassing, unlike our time when we ran with a smile to catch a glimpse of the then President JJ Rawlings anytime we heard he was to visit the village, today, you see photos of school children holding placards with “praising massages” of President Akufo-Addo but with frowned faces which one can clearly say that they were holding and standing in the hot sun against their wish.
The messages on the placards and the faces under the placards do not match. It only shows deception.
I have always been of the views that if a leader is doing well to touch the hearts and souls of the masses he is leading and not only his family and friends, he or his officers need not write messages on placards and force school children to hold them during that leaders visit only to paint a picture to the world as those those pupils willing standing under the scotch sun with those messages. They should not paint the picture as if everything is well and that the children are happy being forced to hold those placards.
Once, the current President Akufo-Addo led NPP government will resort to this type of deceptive publicity, is a great sign that all they told Ghanaians during their opposition days was a total scam.
If President Akufo-Addo and his NPP government think they are doing or have done well and need to tell their stories, I am not sure this is the way to tell those success stories. They should let the people who their works have touched point fingers at those things they (government) have done for them, they should let the people that have been touched by their policies write their names in their hearts but not force their children to hold placards.
If the NPP thinks and knows they have constructed dams in the village like to promised in the One-Village-One-Dam policy, they should let people farming with those dams tell their stories and not school children; if they have established factories in all the districts like to promised in the One-District-One-Factory Policy, they should allow the employee of those factories tell the world; If they have implemented the Free-SHS Policy well and is benefiting Ghanains, definitely every parents and student will know.
The should focus on alleviating the current hardship Ghanaians are going through and stop calling us “witches” and “ungrateful” people. What can be more witchcraft that subjecting our kids to deceptive publicity and punishment.
Ghana must wake up!
By: Efo Korsi Senyo