President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
THE 2022 State of the Nation Address (SONA) to be delivered by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been pushed to Thursday, March 3, 2022, Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin has announced.
“Mr Speaker, the Business Committee takes this opportunity to inform Members that H.E. the President of the Republic is scheduled to deliver a message on the State of the Nation on Thursday, March 3, 2020 in accordance with Article 67 of the Constitution,” he stated last Friday.
He was delivering the explanatory memorandum on the Business Statement for the fourth week ending Friday, February 18, 2022.
Last year, President Akufo-Addo delivered SONA on March 9, during which he was made to feel the taste of the country’s rough-and-tumble Parliament when he was heckled by opposition lawmakers.
Article 67 of the national constitution mandates the President, at the beginning of each session of Parliament and before dissolution of Parliament, to deliver to Parliament a message on the state of the nation.
While presenting his message, the NDC MPs screamed and sang portions of the national anthem, saying “…and help us to resist oppressors rule, with all our will and might forever more” amidst other shouts.
Their counterparts from the Majority side also screamed, “Nana, you do all,” thereby turning the place to a shouting match.
Heckling is common in Ghana’s Parliament, and when President Akufo-Addo was interrupted several times by the opposition MPs, he shrugged it off and remarked to them that people wanting to see his industrialisation projects ought to open their eyes.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House