President Nana Akufo-Addo
The Minority In Parliament are entitled to their opinion about the President’s State Of the Nation Address (SONA) which according to them is anything but a true reflection of the reality on the ground.
With an allergy for facts and truths, we would have been surprised had they done a thumbs-up for the President for the contents of his presentation which was about his achievements – one year into his tenure and the way forward.
One significant segment of his delivery worthy of revisiting is his statement that ‘dumsor’ the nagging power outages which became a feature of the country before the elections, is no longer part of our lexicon.
Considering the negative impact the phenomenon had on the economy and the health of the nation, for that matter, the successful war waged on it by the President and his team is worthy of commendation.
The confidence with which the President told his compatriots during his campaign trail across the country that the anomaly would be a thing of the past and how that really came to pass says a lot about how most of the challenges, if not all, bedeviling Ghana are about leadership and commitment to addressing the deficiencies.
It would be interesting to find out why the previous government was unable to address the problem but its successor did. We are constrained to point at incompetency and the corruption as being factors responsible for what we suffered for those years.
It is also amazing that statutory payments to institutions whose outstanding debts because of non-payment over time neared the roof have been cleared and which, of course, the President made reference to in his SONA.
President Akufo-Addo could afford to say it as it is when he accounted for his stewardship even in the presence of his predecessor because the facts were verifiable.
The ordinary man in the street who does not understand economic indicators and their impact on the health of the state knows too well that dumsor has been abated. To tell him otherwise is to throw dust into his eyes – something he would not take lightly.
We were excited about the President’s decision to earmark a whopping amount of money to tackle policing and sanitation.
In one of our commentaries, we did point out that the need for our law enforcement agents to be steps ahead of sophisticated criminals cannot be overlooked. Government, we pointed out, should consider increasing the budgetary allocation to the Police so they can perform to expectation.
In the most elating response to the nomadic Fulani menace yet, the introduction of the ranch and kraal system as announced by the President will surely minimize the havoc caused by the cattle and reduce the incidence of clashes between locals and the nomads.
An alternative route to the North is a sine qua non. Ignoring this fact is to be simply uncaring about national security issues. The Eastern Corridor route project has suffered dearth of funds for too long. Funds are going to be sought for the completion of the project and this coupled with the extension of the railway system to Paga as envisaged by Governor Gordon Guggisberg would answer the question about alternative routes to the North and ensure the longevity of our highways through the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions.
The President’s passion for sincerity is not in doubt and so he can be counted upon to deliver and when he does, Ghana would have taken another leap that would add to the health of the economy.