A few days ago, Ghanaians woke up to news items and videos of Ghanaian students studying in Morocco on GOG (Government of Ghana) Scholarships crying in front of the Ghana Embassy in Morocco, because the government failed to remit them (See attached video of students). As narrated by the students, the failure of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government to remit them has plunged them into unimaginable hardships.
Whilst it’s heartbreaking for parents to watch their wards in such a helpless situation in a foreign land, when state resources are dissipated wantonly by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government, it is also an embarrassment to Ghana amongst its continental and international peers.
Quite frankly, Ghanaians must call out the failed, corrupt, and insensitive Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government for wasting the collective resources of Ghanaians on personal and frivolous pet projects to the detriment of Ghanaian students, as in this situation.
The plight of our students in Morocco, as narrated by themselves in the video attached, adds to a long and unending list of similar situations reported by students in various countries studying on GOG Scholarships. Our students on GOG Scholarships are mostly in tears, sorrow and trauma, because of threats of being prevented from writing their examinations, thrown out of their places of abode, and their inability to pay for utilities, and to feed themselves; due to delays in remittance by government via the Scholarship Secretariat.
Consequently, the plight of Ghanaian students studying on GOG Scholarships must receive our collective attention as a nation.
Though the Scholarship Secretariat is housed at the Presidency, and therefore outside the mandate of the Education Committee of Parliament, I’ve made it my business to advocate for our students studying abroad because I can relate to, and understand the challenges of international students first-hand, having studied in Norway and Canada, myself.
As far as I know, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government has been granted the resources to ensure that all our students on GOG Scholarships, both home and abroad, are adequately supported and their stipends timeously remitted. Therefore, the government, through the Scholarship Secretariat, has no excuse for looking on while our sons and daughters suffer humiliation in foreign lands.
As part of my advocacy, I’ve filed at least two questions on unreasonable delays by the Scholarship Secretariat to remit Ghanaian students on GOG Scholarships. Sometime in 2022, I called on Parliament to consider programming the then leader of the House, who doubled as leader of Government Business and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the link between Parliament and the Presidency, to address the plight of our students on GOG Scholarships (see attached video of parliamentary proceedings), because the head of the Scholarship Secretariat refused an invitation by the Education Committee on same.
Given that the situation in which our students in Morocco find themselves remains unresolved, I ask you to join me in calling on Akufo-Addo and/or Bawumia to instruct the Scholarship Secretariat to remit our helpless students in Morocco immediately. Let us further call on the government to ensure that there are no unreasonable delays in remitting our students on GOG Scholarships in any part of the world.
Signed.
Dr. Clement Abas Apaak
MP, Builsa South, and Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament