The Minority in Parliament has described the maiden State of the Nation Address of President Akufo Addo as one fraught with inaccuracies.
According to the Minority, the address also failed to deal with critical sectors of the country.
Addressing the press, Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu, indicated that it was unpardonable for the President not to have touched on Housing, the security situation in Bimbilla, Sports, Tourism among others in the sessional address.
According to him, the President’s condemnation of post-election violence was not enough. “Nana Addo created an omission when he said charity begins at home, but failed to utter a word on the Bimbilla clashes, so we remind him that it is not just about what happens elsewhere but in his backyard.
He is concerned about developments in The Gambia, and we are also concerned about the insecurity in Bimbilla, and we have already put them on alert that let nobody come tomorrow regretting that there is an incident in Bawku or in Yendi and now we are coming to single out life and property to be lost.
I think they must act on their intelligence. We heard practically nothing about Brexit and its implications on our trade relations with the UK. On health, he only decided to talk about the NHIS…The President was more on statement of problems than suggesting solutions.”
Haruna Iddrisu is not the only Minority member who has raised concerns with the President’s State of the Nation Address. Okudzeto Ablakwa also said the President’s address was tilted to put the NPP administration in a good light.
He dismissed assertions by the President that the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) left the economy in crisis. “If you read the full State of the Nation Address, you will come to the conclusion that this economy cannot be a broke economy.
This is the same economy that President Akufo Addo is saying that he is able to provide allowances to teacher trainees and nursing trainees. He is able to begin his free SHS programme and we should look forward to the Minister of Finance presenting his budget which will give us details on how he is going to do that. He is also upbeat about implementing a lot of his promises.
The one village, one dam policy etc,” Ablakwa said. “President Mahama has always spoken to the challenges. There is a difference when you do objective analysis and talk about challenges, and there is another issue that has to do with exaggerating and creating a situation that does not exist.
If you say that we have revenue shortfalls; if you talk about the fact that we have missed some of the IMF targets that we have set, yes; that is fair, but in the same breadth, why do we think that the President did not touch on inflation? Because inflation has been trending downwards, interest rates have been trending downwards. So it is about picking and choosing and the picture you want to paint,” he added.
Nothing new in Nana Addo’s statement
The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, also downplayed the President’s address, saying he presented “nothing new” in his statement.
The President presented his first address before Parliament in which he among other things condemned the violent attacks that characterized the transition period earlier this year, adding that such undignified acts should not be encouraged during his address.
But Asiedu Nketia, in an interview with Citi News after the President’s presentation, said the attempt “to create the impression that he disliked the behaviour of his party people during the transition is just a smokescreen.”
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