Mr Johnson Asideu Nketia, General Secretary, National Democratic Congress(NDC), has described the 2022 State of Nation Address as an “Enterprise of Delivering State of Nation.”
Reacting to the State of Nation Address (SONA) in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at the Parliament House on Wednesday, Mr Nketia implored President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to talk more about his achievements.
He said: “I see this whole enterprise of delivering state of the nation address as an exercise to take credit even where credit is not due, to find a scapegoat to blame for whatever they consider is wrong and to continue promising when even the initial promises are not delivered.
“I think that after six years plus in government, the President should be talking about his achievements and not finding a scapegoat to blame. It is clear that he has run out of scapegoats that is why he ended up blaming Russia and Ukraine,” Mr Nketia said.
According to the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the President had no justification for blaming Ukraine and Russia for his woes especially when the crisis in the two countries came less than 40 days ago.
“Russia and Ukraine came less than 40 days ago, it is not even within the reporting period and yet you are talking about blaming your owes on Ukraine and Russia. It tells me that he has run out of scapegoats to blame,” he told the GNA in Accra.
Mr Nketia stressed that the President began by blaming his predecessors, however, not being accepted by the country anymore had resulted in him blaming the international communities.
Touching on the Minority caucus walkout in Parliament during the consideration stage of the Electronic Transaction Levy, Mr Nketia told the GNA that the whole process had been turned upside down.
“I am surprised the President will be talking about rule of law and yet he encourages his people to do everything that is not legal.
“Everything amounts to abuse of all the systems in the house. So technically I do not consider that right proceedings have been followed,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, presented a message on the SONA to Parliament.
The sessional address is constitutionally authorised and must be delivered in the first meeting of every session of the House.
He used the SONA to share key policy objectives and deliverables that had been achieved, for the year ahead and highlighted flags challenges where he outlined interventions to unlock development interventions for the coming financial year.
A motion to thank the president for the message on the SONA has been moved to Thursday, March 31 2022.
