Economic hardships: Suspend your regional tours immediately – Ablakwa to Akufo-Addo

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to suspend his regional tours immediately. The MP, in a tweet on Thursday, October 20, 2022, stated that the president cannot travel around the country as the citizens' hardships continue to worsen. The MP, who was particularly worried about the current rapid rate of depreciation of the Ghana Cedi, said the cedi’s performance should be treated as a national security threat. He added that Akufo-Addo should, as a matter of urgency, fire his finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and start consultative engagement with all stakeholders across the political divide to help find solutions to the difficulties Ghanaians are going through. “The total crash of the Cedi must be seen as a major national security threat. “Prez Akufo-Addo should immediately suspend his regional booing tours, sack his Finance Minister, dissolve his failed EMT & convene a non-partisan emergency economic rescue forum to harvest fresh ideas,” the tweet the MP shared read. On Friday, October 21, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo began a three-day tour to the Eastern Region to commission completed projects, inspect ongoing ones and interact with traditional authorities of the area. The Eastern Region tour comes days after the president’s tour of the Ashanti Region, which made news headlines after Akufo-Addo was hooted at by some factions in the party’s stronghold over the economic hardship in the country. President Akufo-Addo and his government have come under heavy scrutiny for failing to address the current economic challenges in the country. The prices of goods and services have been continuously rising all year round, with inflation currently hovering over 37 per cent. The Ghana cedi has been ranked the worst currency in the world among 148 currencies tracked by Bloomberg, overtaking Sri Lanka's rupee, having depreciated by nearly 50 per cent so far in 2022. View the MP’s tweet below:

The total crash of the Cedi must be seen as a major national security threat. Prez Akufo-Addo should immediately suspend his regional booing tours, sack his Finance Minister, dissolve his failed EMT & convene a non-partisan emergency economic rescue forum to harvest fresh ideas.— Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa (@S_OkudzetoAblak) October 20, 2022 You can also watch this episode of People & Places on GhanaWeb TV: IB/BOG