President delivered ‘State of Promises’ address- Minority Leader

Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu has remarked that President Akufo Addo’s State of Nation Address was the usual promises given by presidents and politicians on campaign platforms which failed to address the actual issues confronting the nation. The minority leader stated this when he was commenting on the president’s speech on the floor of parliament.

In a similar development, Mr Amon Quartey, a Local Government Expert on Pink 96.9 FM, a Kasoa-based Radio station supported the minority leader’s remarks, stating that the president failed to address the actual issues currently confronting the nation and what he has achieved. In his view, the president failed to talk about the one-village-one-dam, one-district-one-million-dollars, vigilantism and other issues confronting the nation. He further stated that, the president restated some of the promises in this year’s budget but he scored him high on the economic stability indicators the president reported in his speech.

In other related developments, the Minority in wore all black to welcome His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana as he delivered the state of the Nation address today. They jeered and heckled as the President delivered the State of the Nation Address while their counterparts on the majority side of the chamber cheered on.

The members of the Minority have over the past weeks boycotted parliamentary sittings in protest over the Cash-for-seat report, which they said didn’t take into account the views of its members.

They staged a walkout from Parliament over the Committee report following a probe into claims that the Trade Ministry extorted $100,000 from expatriates to allow them to sit close to the President during the Ghana Expatriates Business Awards in December 2017.

Speaking to second the motion for adjournment of parliament after the president had finished delivering the State of the nation address, Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu told the house: “I’m in all black because I am not happy and I’m protesting what you may call tyranny and abuse of political power and disrespect for minority rights and opinions.”.

He criticized the president’s address saying “I hope that you can arrive in the train from Paga and that you see the 50 factories on the way. There are only 2 things that this government can celebrate: the setup of the special prosecutor’s office and the struggle to finance the noble Free SHS. Free SHS is noble, but it is struggling. We’ve seen headmasters and headmistresses of schools being intimidated because of this initiative. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo presides over the largest govt in the world. Show me another country that has 110 ministers. In Ghana, oversight over the minority is more than oversight over the whole of parliament. It is not about minority not supporting motions”, the Minority Leader said.