Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central constituency Isaac Adongo has asserted that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s first State of the Nation Address was rather a presentation of the future of the nation.
President Nana Addo on Tuesday March 9, 2021 delivered a State of the Nation address, making it the first in his second term in office.
The address largely focused on the economy and how government managed the COVID-19 pandemic with a projection of key economic recovery programs to be undertaken by the New Patriotic Party government.
The President amongst others stressed that the resilience of the economy was manifested in the ability of government to cushion Ghanaians by offering relieves to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and also mobilised resources to fight the disease.
However, the National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central constituency Isaac Adongo said on the floor of parliament during a debate of the address that the presentation was filled with contemplation of the future instead of the true current state of the Ghanaian economy.
“As I sat and listened to His Excellency over the period of the statement, I was lost as to whether the President was presenting the state of the nation or the future of the nation. I heard more about the future of the nation that he was contemplating in four years and less of the state that our economy and country is at this point in time,” he said.
He argued that very key issues regarding the economy and the country were missing from the address presented by President Nana Addo.
According to the MP, the President elicited targets that were revised relative to the economy and the outbreak of the pandemic but failed to point out the current state of those revised targets.
While Ghana’s overall economic growth rate for 2020 was revised downward from 6.8 to 0.9, Mr. Adongo stated that the President did not say how the economy is faring currently in growth. He also pointed to the revenue shortfall of 13.5 billion cedis with additional expenditure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everyone thought that he (President) would have told us where we are with these indicators. Even more worrying was the fact that when the President attempted indicating some of the indicators that he thought we had achieved during his term, he fell short of telling us exactly what he has achieved in that period,” he added.
Mr. Isaac Adongo continued that claims by the President that an average GDP of 7% has been recorded cannot be accurate when reported figures of 2018, 2019 and 2020 are computed.
