SONA 2022: Prez Akufo Addo downplaying economic hardship faced by Ghanaians-MP for Sege
The Member of Parliament for Sege, Hon Christian Corletey Otuteye, has berated the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led government for allegedly downplaying the economic hardship faced by Ghanaians.
The MP stated this in reaction to the President’s message to Parliament known as the State of the Nation Address (SONA) by President Akufo Addo, who claimed that the NPP administration had achieved economic sufficiency and was on the cause to transform the country.
In the message on the floor of Parliament in Accra yesterday, according to Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution, President Akufo-Addo said despite the economic gloom that has engulfed the country, caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus disease and lately the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, there was some progress to cheer about because the government was taking steps to surmount the challenges.
“The road to recovery will be hard and long, Mr. Speaker, but we have started on a good footing by accepting that we are in a difficult place, and are taking the difficult decisions that will get us out,” President Akufo-Addo told the House.
But the message on the state of the nation did not reflect the true state of the feeling of Ghanaians, especially the price of food stuff, fuel prices, among other daily lives issues.
Speaking to EXPRESSNEWSGHANA, after proceeding of parliament on the SONA, Hon Otuteye said the president had lost touch with the reality of the Ghanaian.
“I expected the president to deliver the true state of the nation which would reflect the growing hardship and suffering of the Ghanaian people.
“But the president himself does not have the self-confidence to talk about the economy of Ghana.”
“The President did not touch on how his government is doing to solve the issues like the cost of living, fuel price is increasing daily, food stuff has increased almost on every commodity and the cedi has fallen sharply to the dollar and the president was silent on all these,” Hon Otuteye added.
In the view of the Sege MP, the success as claimed by the president in the various sectors of the economy including health, education, roads, security amongst others were just a rehatch of the promises made in the 2020 election.
“The President is continuing with his promises and slogans. So I think the President failed the nation to speak the truth of the economy and downplayed hardship reality,” Hon Otuteye stated.
He said the president’s claim that he has constructed more roads – 10,875 kilometres of new roads than any other government in the history of Ghana was a falsehood.
“Mr. Speaker, in the five years of my government, so far, more roads have been built, improved and upgraded than at any other equivalent period under any government in the history of Ghana,” the President said.
To him, what the president did was to present a “partial” state of the nation address because “this is not the true state of affairs in the roads sector.”
However, the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin said the president was “very sincere, and candid with the facts.”
The president, Afenyo-Markin, MP, Effutu said was comprehensive with his address by admitting the challenges with the economy, proffered solutions and made the call for Ghanaians to rally for the actualization of the vision of the government.
He insisted that the government did some major roads works and more would be constructed with a dedicated source of funding for road infrastructure in the Electronic Transfer Levy and called on the Minority to support it.
Source: expressnewsghana.com
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