Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, has taken his SpeakOut tour to the Upper East Regional capital, Bolgatanga.

The Bolgatanga tour is the third in the series of community-based and opinion-gathering fora being embarked upon by Mr Mahama across all of Ghana’s 16 regions to reach out to people of all shades and opinions.

The Upper East Regional session of the SpeakOut tour was held in Bolgatanga, the regional capital on Monday, March 9, 2020, at the GNAT Hall.

"I’m here to listen to you and, most importantly, to learn from you. I must be quick to say that participants here were not selected based on any partisan basis," was how Mr Mahama opened the Bolga session.

Among the issues addressed were those of education, employment, health care delivery, corruption, galamsey, security, peace among others.

The former president told the gathering that he was ready to listen to their needs and concerns to enable his party to have an informed position in writing the “People’s Manifesto.”

On education, Mr Mahama promised to review and improve upon the free S.H.S. policy, which he said had been haphazardly implemented by the ruling government. 

He stressed the need to rekindle the government’s commitment towards vocational and technical training, tools he described as being critical to the workforce and human capital requisite for industrialization in Ghana.

Mr Mahama promised to bring his many years of experience to bare to salvage what he called the current socio-economic mishaps to the interest of the ordinary Ghanaian citizen with any discrimination.

As declared by him, the session brought together mechanics, farmers, aggrieved New Patriotic Party (NPP) members, musicians, engineers, teachers, hairdressers, lawyers, pot makers, businessmen and women.

There were also public servants, galamsey operators, GPRTU members, fuel dealers, wood sellers, unemployed graduates nurses and midwives, NABCO trainees, N.G.O.’s, students, the clergy, market women and a host of other professionals.

The former president has been embarking on the tours with the National Chairman of the NDC, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, Director of Elections of the NDC, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, National Organiser, Joshua Akamba, Julius Debrah, a former Chief of Staff among a host of other national executives.

Over the next few days, the leader and flagbearer of the N.D.C. will also be visiting the North East, the Savannah, and the Northern Regions. 

The novel SpeakOut sessions are uniquely structured events that encourage people to speak out freely about vital issues.

It also invites the participants to envisage a better future, and then to share their ideas on what they think needs to be done to achieve the needs.