The uninspiring State Of the Nation Address (SONA) by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, was loudly silent on the 3 most worrying issues of corruption, high-tech galamsey (HTG), and unemployment, in my opinion, because he has badly been defeated by them for obvious reasons. Let’s look at the associated reasons why Akufo-Addo has done the way he did during his penultimate SONA.

Corruption has sorrowfully defeated Akufo-Addo:

President Akufo-Addo was deliberately silent on the state of corruption in Ghana in his penultimate SONA because his regime had been sorrowfully defeated by it. Ghanaians still deserve to know about Akufo-Addo’s efforts to fight corruption before he leaves office on January 6, 2025. The rosy promises of the NPP Party with candidate Akufo-Addo as the ‘lead striker’ have not materialized as far as the corruption fight is concerned. For instance, Akufo-Addo promised to protect the public purse because it was badly leaking under former President John Dramani Mahama’s tenure. But now, what do we see happening under his watch? He also warned his Party members that if any of them thought of making more money in his government, the right place for them was to be in the private sector.

President Akufo-Addo also ensured that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) was established as soon as I came into office, but the OSP was suffocating in terms of financial and human resources to be more effective in the corruption fight. The actions of this Akufo-Addo-led government rather appeared to be targeting corruption fighters instead of fighting corruption by example himself. The case of the violent removal of the former Auditor-General, Mr. Daniel Yao Domelevo for fighting corruption is a classic example to give.

The mounting corruption scandals in his government to date is a testament to the fact that Akufo-Addo has indeed been sorrowfully defeated by corruption
itself for his lack of demonstrable leadership to sincerely fight it. Therefore, it was apparently difficult for the President to look Ghanaians in the faces and tell them that he had lost the corruption fight. This is suggestive of his loud silence in his last but one SONA.

HTG menace has embarrassingly defeated Akufo-Addo:

The unprecedented HTG menace in the country under the watch of President Akufo-Addo when he put his presidency on the line for Ghanaians to renew his mandate in 2020 is worrying now, to say the least. The prevailing situation of galamsey operations has never been worse than what we are witnessing now under the governing NPP Party led by President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Bawumia.
Our major rivers and Forest Reserves have been violently raped by HTG operations under this current regime because of the issue of ‘Presidential Galamseyers’ as disclosed by the former Minister of Environment and Science and Chairman of Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Prof. Dr. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.

Find details in my publication on the Presidential Galamseyers effect on the HTG fight (see https://www.modernghana.com/news/1226543/presidential-galamseyers-exposed-insincere-akufo.html, published on April 25, 2023) and identify drivers and suggest solutions to addressing the HTG menace sustainably in the country (see https://www.modernghana.com/news/1278812/high-tech-galamseyhtg-under-npp-is-disappearing.html, published on December 10, 2023).

The lost fight against the ragging HTG menace is a strong reflection of President Akufo-Addo’s insincerity to Ghanaian voters, which can devour future generations in the country because of the debilitating human and environmental health impacts on people and nature in affected mining areas. It looks obvious that the President has given up on the HTG fight completely and is simply looking away from the reality on the ground, which is unfortunate. Obviously, President Akufo-Addo chose to be silenced on the HTG issue in his SONA for a bad job done so far.

Unemployment has badly defeated Akufo-Addo.

The governing NPP Party also made Ghanaians understand that they would create more jobs for the youth when voted into power in 2017. The Nation Builders Corp. (NABCO) program was hurriedly implemented. A few years down the line, NABCO graduates are now left without sustainable jobs and non-payment of their meagre salaries for about nine months by the government.

Although this Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government claimed to have created 2.3 million jobs in the system, the Ghana Statistical Service has reported an increase in the unemployment rate of 14.7% in 2023. How come we don’t see a reduction in the unemployment rate but rather an increasing trend of unemployment in the country? It was not surprising that President Akufo-Addo dodged the issue of worsening unemployment among the teeming young graduates in the country in his SONA.

Concluding statements:

The Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led regime and the NPP Party have given up on the worsening corruption, HTG, and unemployment menace in the country. The penultimate SONA of President Akufo-Addo, devoid of corruption, HTG, and unemployment issues, shows this governing NPP has run out of transformative ideas and energy and should be voted out in the upcoming general elections. There is a need to change this abysmally performing Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government and replace it with the next NDC/Mahama government to improve the living conditions of Ghanaians.