The persons with disability secretariat of the New Patriotic Party has been taken aback by the kind of derogatory remark within the media landscape made by MR Dela Edem a known communication team member of the major opposition Party the NDC on POWER FM against former president Kuffour.
The said comment meant to suggest that an 83 year old president Kuffor who distinguished himself as a president and continues to evince his unwavering commitment and patriotism to this country as a citizen and a Stateman is in a wheel chair because of his sins and wickedness.
We have noticed with a deep shock that the NDC as a political Party and its flagbearer have not seen the need to render any apology to the former president and by extension all persons with Disabilities across the country till date.
We wish to contend without any modicum of equivocation that this comment is absolutely repugnant, reprehensible and rebarbative because it abridges and curtails the rights of persons with disabilities when it comes to expressing our views on national issues.
Former president Kuffour did nothing wrong for sharing his personal experience about the flagbearer of the NPP for him to be described as hypocrite and callous as MR Dela Edem sought to do.
According to the electoral commission of Ghana, we have about 2million persons with Disabilities on our voter register so why can’t we also ventilate our views on issues within our body politics.
Sections 4 and 37 of the current Disability Act, Act 715 frown on discriminations against persons with disabilities as well as the use of derogatory names against persons with Disabilities but the NDC have shown clearly that it is their idiosyncrasy as a Party to always disrespect persons with Disability.
This is corroborated by the comment made sometime ago by the current speaker of Parliament Honorable Alban Bagbin that one of the factors that led to the NDC losing power in 2016 was as a result of making honorable Edward Omane Boamah a stammerer a communication minister under Mahama.
This clearly indicates that the NDC as a Party and their functionaries have no respect for persons with disabilities hence they keep using undignified words against us in their utterances wherever they find themselves.
It remains an indubitable or incontrovertible truth that issues of disability in this country have been rendered nugatory by the public and most people rather believe that disability comes as a result of punishment from God to the person due to his bad deeds. but we are of the conviction that it is about time that we rose against such ignominious treatment given to us in this country because of the thinking that persons with disabilities are subject of God’s curse without taking into consideration that disability knows no one and anybody at all can become disabled at anytime. .
Persons with disability in this country prior to the coming of president Nana Akufo-Addo languished to struggle on their own to survive without any clear policies to alleviate the predicaments faced by us.
The impediments in our path were too much to the extent that we were not considered by the NDC in any decision made by their government.
But we wish to assert that disability is no respecter of persons so the NDC should be guided as a Party through their actions by creating an inclusive environment for all without any semblance of discrimination and segregation against the disabled.
As a country that tout itself with an accolade of being the beacon of democracy in Africa, our attitude towards the disabled has not been the best at all as we continue to create excruciating pains for such people in everything we do.
We wish to elicit an unflinching support from the media and the general public to compel the NDC to do the needful by rendering public apology for peace to prevail.
I wish to assert without any scintilla of doubt that this NPP government has demonstrated in copious grounds that it has the interest of persons with disability at heart contrary to the records of the NDC as a Party which puts the interest of such people at the periphery.
The current NPP government through the scholarship secretariat implemented free tertiary education policy for persons with disability since the 2021-2022 academic year.
Based on this, all students with disability in the various Universities have had their tuitions paid in full and I can unreservedly report that no student with disability is owing any school in Ghana even a dime and for that matter a number of the Universities are now rather owing our students with disability.
As we speak, the government through the GNPC fund introduced a special scholarship package for students with disability across the various Universities in Ghana.
This scholarship began in the 2017-2018 academic year and each beneficiary was at the time receiving GHC9000 before it was reduced to GHC6000 per beneficiary when the scholarship was expanded to cater for more people.
The government through the Ghana gas LTD has again rolled out a fresh scholarship package for students with disability at the tertiary level and the processes are underway and very soon a list of beneficiaries will be released for their stipend to be given to them.
Before the inception of the NPP government in 2001, issues germane to persons with disability were swept under the carpet by NDC government until the NPP wan in 2000 and president Kufuor began to highlight our issues in his government.
The NPP under former president Kufuor brought into being act 715 known as the disability act which encompasses the welfare of persons with disability.
The NPP in addition introduced the metro mass busses which are boarded by persons with disability for free which aid the movement of PWDS across the country by ensuring a safer traveling arrangement.
Moreover, to ensure persons with disability live a comfortable life, the NPP introduced the PWDS share of the common fund to optimize the opportunities for pursuit in education, employment and growth in all aspects of life.
On assumption of the reins of government in 2017, his excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo and his government evinced clearly that it has a voracious interest in issues regarding persons with disabilities in many areas. For example, he has astronomically increased the disability common fund by 50% to cater for our needs.
They have also departed from handout of meagre monies under the previous regime to the purchase of tools, containers and other long term and sustainable means of livelihoods for PWDS.
Furthermore, the government has employed a significant number of people with disability since it took over in 2017 and now it is very cumbersome to come by a person with disability with the requisite qualification who is not working.
A quintessential example of where these employees can be found is the Civil Service and the Local government Service, the Ghana Education Service as well as the Youth employment agency recruitment which was recently done to employ all the persons with disabilities who lost their jobs as a result of the closure of the toll boots.
Again, the government has also made sure that the nursing training curriculum will have a course in sign language as part of the syllabus to help our nurses to be able to communicate with the hearing-impaired patients who will visit our hospitals.
In the past, our hearing-impaired brothers could not tell our nurses their challenges whenever they visit the hospital so they were just given any medicine that the nurses wish to give them.
One cannot talk without making reference to the almighty free education which has reduced the burden of the disabled students to the barest minimum.
This is because students with disability were finding it difficult to defray the cost of their school fees but now everyone who is a person with disability is just going to school without paying anything leading to
A diminution in the number of persons with disability on the road begging for alms.
I can state unreservedly that educating the disabled child in Ghana is the most complicated thing to do because of the exorbitant prices of the learning materials that we use in our schools.
In view of that, a lot of persons with disability who were very intelligent could not pursue their education under Mahama.
But now we can say that we have an intrepid leader who takes difficult decisions in spite of the predicaments that were created by the NDC that he came to inherit.
Undoubtedly, this government has performed creditably on disability issues in spite of the quagmires created by the NDC for us. A classic example is the delay in the disbursement of funds to the special schools for their smooth running which has become a thing of the past owing to good leadership.
The manifesto of the Party in the 2020 election also pledged to expand all special schools across the country with several infrastructural projects which we have done.
Besides, the president recently gave an amount of two million cedis to more than 1000 persons with disability who are entrepreneurs to fortify their businesses in order for them to live an independent life.
There is also a 100% increment of the bursary given to every special need student at the tertiary level annually.
In case you do not know much about the bursary, then let me crave your indulgence to brief you on it.
The bursary is some small allowance given to persons living with disability who are in the tertiary institutions every year by the government to ameliorate the bad financial conditions of such people as a form of social assistance policy to reduce poverty and improve the standard of living, however, we were receiving only GHC345 under the NDC regime every academic year and this government has exponentially increased it by %100 for us.
We want to use this opportunity to implore all Ghanaians to jettison the candidature of formal president Mahama since he does not have anything good to do for this country.
Most of the things that they tout themselves to have done are fallacious and are just to mislead the public.
The secretariat believes that development will be too dilatory under Mahama taken into consideration his abysmal or dismal performance in government which saw a steep decline in our economy propelling him to concede that we have chewed all the meet and the bone is the one left signifying a serious economic recession during his tenure.
Ghanaians must know that going back to the NDC is tantamount to selling our country to people with kleptomaniac hands and that will be calamitous for us.
If you hear the NDC campaigning on infrastructural development being superb under them please do not be so much scandalized or astounded since it is just a self-adulation to hype the candidature of Mahama who does not have any proper track record when it comes to infrastructure.
Do people not feel insulted when he tells us that he started free education as a policy even though it is glaring before all of us the masterminds of that policy?
It is an indisputable fact that the NDC functionaries have specialized in lies and they can do it to perfection extemporaneously.
We believe that Ghanaians will not disavow the NPP on December 7 2024 based on the myriad of stupendous achievements chalked by the Party.
The putative truth in this regard is that the NDC has an inauspicious future in the 2024 election hence will want to make every concerted effort to salvage itself from the bleak and the gloomy outcome that awaits them.
We call on all persons with disability across the length and breath of the country to rally their unflinching support behind the NPP for a good course because it is the only Party that is reliant when it comes to our issues base on the record available.
Do not be swindled by any amount of money or material gift which will be offered to you by the NDC just to win your vote because they will continue to render you impecunious after winning the election but rather fall for a Party that will implement policies that have the propensity to mitigate your hardship.
Let us all try to be incredulous in times like this so as not to be swayed by these people.
I will end my statement by saying that we should all do a sagacious analysis about the two Parties by comparing their records on disability related issues and we will realize that it is an invidious comparison if you compare the NDC to the NPP in terms of splendid performance on our issues.
Vote number 1 for DR Bawumia for a better future.
Thank you.
Signed:
DR Kwasi Kyei the national coordinator of the )NPP persons with Disabilities secretariat(:
GILBERT BOATENG AGYARE THE COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR OF THE SECRETARIAT:
