Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mustapha Gbande, has taken a swipe at the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), accusing the administration of mismanaging and diverting funds intended for major national initiatives, including the much-publicized Planting for Food and Jobs programme.
“They told you and I that they were going to do Planting for Food and Jobs. Brilliant policy… but they brought the project and chopped the money,” Gbande charged. “They didn’t try in order to say they failed. They have chopped the money.”
Speaking in an interview on Starr Chart with Bola Ray, Gbande questioned the impact of the programme on food security and suggested that the entire initiative was plagued by poor oversight and mismanagement.
“Go to the market today and ask for a bag of maize, how did that deal with food security? Money went into it, but what did we see?” he asked, adding, “Even the regional minister had to caution him. Do you need more evidence to know that this was poorly supervised?”
Gbande didn’t stop at Planting for Food and Jobs. He also criticized other government initiatives, including One District, One Factory and the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy. According to him, while some of the policies were good in concept, they were poorly executed and politicized.
“One District, One Factory — that was a scam. Free SHS was a good policy, but poorly executed. They used it as a political tool, not a social intervention,” he said.
Reflecting on his own experience, Gbande expressed frustration over what he called missed opportunities in the implementation of Free SHS.
“I had to struggle to pay my school fees. Free SHS would have helped people like me. But they fed the students poorly, didn’t invest in infrastructure, and teachers weren’t motivated. It was a good vision, but the execution was politically motivated.”
