By Moses Owopade (Accra)
In less than a year to leave office, the President of Ghana, Mr. Nana Ado Dankwa Akufo Ado has expressed optimism that the present economic challenge that the nation is experiencing will soon be over.
President Akufo Ado declared this when he was declaring his state of the Nation address to the Parliament. He said the government is aware of the battle that the citizens are facing that has led to pockets of protest by various groups in the country. He lamented that the crises are not peculiar to Ghana alone, tracing the global economic difficulty to the war and instability rocking some countries in Europe, and some parts of Africa.
“In spite of the fact that we all are independent nations, yet, we depend on products produced across other countries to boost our individual nations,” he said.
Akufo Addo said his economic team is working assiduously to address some pertinent issues especially where leakages to the economic advantages are being experienced.
He assured that some steps are already in the pipeline to salvage the situation. The government has recently disolved his cabinet, which could be assumed as a palliative step to addressing the challenge. “Truly, we have been battered but we shall rise again. We have been denied but we will win the battle”, he assured.
The President also promised that the nation’s sports, especially the Senior National Team, the Black Stars will be further supported by the government so that the lost glory will be restored.
He promised young athletes to allow the love of the country to rule their hearts. Ghana will be hosting All African Games from next week.
Meanwhile, members of Parliament from the main opposition party, NDC considered the President address as empty speech. Some of them who agreed to speak with journalists after the presentation said, the President has only succeeded in compounding the problem because his speech lacked projection and focus.
Hon Samuel from Volta Region said the President has lied as usual again. “The same promises he made about 8 years ago is the same lies he had told us. We at the opposition will not allow anybody to deceive our people again. I have the confidence that Ghanaians are tired of this NPP lies and by December this year, NPP will be kicked out for people oriented administration of John Mahama of the NDC to come and restructure our economy,” the lawmaker said.
Some of the citizens who spoke with thegazellenews.com l expressed disappointment in the state of of the Nation. Mr. Benjamin Adjetey said the last seven years of the Akufo Ado administration has left some businesses to collapse. He lamented on the cost of living and and the rate at which Small Scale Enterprise has been completely destroyed in the country.
He said most of the programmes of this administration has failed.
“Talk of one district, one factory that they promised us, they failed, the individual company they promised to assist are rather dying. The school feeding programme is a total failure, my brother, go and see the quality and quantity of food given to these children, I am sure you can’t give such food to your pets at home. The free senior secondary education has been a colossal failure and has led to the rise of private senior high schools in the country. I can go on and on, we need to salvage this country my brother,” Adjetey lamented to thegazellenews.com