President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday expressed gratitude to Ghanaians and the Almighty God for granting him a clear mandate to govern the country for four more years.
According to him, this means that he has been given the opportunity to complete tasks, consolidate some of the far-reaching measures his government has introduced and to initiate further changes and adjustments to policies and practices.
“The constitution demands that we go to the people after four years to ask for a mandate, and we must listen to the voice of the people. I said during the election campaign, and it is my firm and passionate view that I should only be President in a fairly conducted election, which I believe, in all sincerity, the election of December 7 was,” he stated during the State of the Nation address in Parliament yesterday.
It was delivered in accordance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution, which event was attended by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and his wife Samira Bawumia, First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo, Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah and other Justices of the Superior Court, former President John Agyekum Kufuor, NPP National Chairman Freddie Blay and Chief of Staff Akosua Frema Osei Opare.
President Akufo-Addo said he recognized that his main opponent in the election, former President John Mahama, had gone to the Supreme Court to seek its intervention, and grant reliefs that he (NDC presidential candidate) believed were compromised in the conduct of the elections.
“It is good for the nation that, in the end, he chose the legal path, instead of the pockets of violence that have attended the rejection of the results by his party in the period after the elections,” he noted.
He said all Ghanaians had to make a deliberate decision to invest in the rule of law and uphold the integrity of the institutions of state, so that no person or a group of persons took the law into its own hands with impunity.
“Mr. Speaker, it has been my great pleasure and exceptional privilege these past four years to have served as President of our beloved country. I am grateful to this honourable House for its cooperation in the enterprise to attain our common goal and aspiration of advancing the peace, progress and welfare of the Ghanaian people.
“I will see some of you in February, and, those of you who will not be present have my best wishes for the future,” the President said, and added that “Mr. Speaker, I will like to say a special thank you to the members of this august House, to the members of this Seventh Parliament in our Fourth Republic.”
“I speak as someone who has served three terms in this House, and I can safely say that this Seventh Parliament has been the busiest ever and, arguably, the most productive in the history of our country. You have passed almost 50 pieces of legislative instruments,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo stated that the Acts have been wide ranging in scope and that “we finally have the Right to Information Act, we have a Special Prosecutor Act, the Ghana Integrated Aluminum Development Corporation Act, the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Act, the Witness Protection Act, the Lands Act, the historic Private Members Bill and lots more.
“In many ways you have helped transform Ghana and you have every right, collectively, to be proud of the work you have done,” he asserted and indicated that “the next Parliament is not going to be anything like this one that ends today.”
“I do not suggest that the House might not be as busy, but the sitting arrangements, the source and decibel levels of sound from the House would certainly be different,” the President posited.
For him, the good people of Ghana have spoken and given Parliament an almost equal strength on both sides of the House; we have no choice but to work with the consequences of the desires of the people.
“The House will have to be more accommodating of each other’s views and, probably, devise new ways of conducting its affairs,” he added.