NPP Flagbearer, Nana Addo on Monday presented what he calls the ‘Real State of the Nation Address’ at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra.
The address was a direct response to President Mahama’s constitutionally mandated state of the nation address delivered last Thursday February, 25.
The NPP has described Mahama’s address as disappointing and only filled with half-truths.
Nana Addo among other things, described Mahama’s ‘evidence-based’ State of the Nation Address as an embarrassing exercise that shows mediocrity.
Below is Nana Addo’s full address
.
SPEECH BY NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO, 2016 NPP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, ON “THE REAL STATE OF THE NATION – A NATION IN CRISIS”, ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016, AT THE GHANA COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS.
I have been traveling around Ghana and meeting our people for much of my adult life. I have seen poverty, I have seen suffering, but, through it all, I have been encouraged and sustained by the willpower and determination of the Ghanaian people.
It might well be because of my determination to look out for the good and the positive in our situation that it has taken me a while to face up to the fact that our country is currently in a state of crisis. In all the years that I have been in public life, I have never seen the level of desperation and depth of despair that today have become the daily existence of the majority of people in our country.
This is Ghana, our Ghana, a nation where most people, in times of trouble, try and lift themselves up and do something to improve upon their circumstances.
Today, that spark which pushes us and gives us the determination to overcome is disappearing and a sense of gloom is enveloping our nation.
When the President of the Republic rose before Parliament, in fulfilment of his constitutional obligation, to deliver his Message on the State of the Nation, last Thursday, I watched on television in the hope that he would capture the mood and the difficulties that face our people daily. I waited to hear him admit that we are in a crisis and I willed him on to offer a glimmer of hope and ask all of us Ghanaians to help resolve the crisis in which we find ourselves. I wanted him to admit that ours was, indeed, a nation in crisis
Unfortunately, millions of Ghanaians, including my humble self, waited in vain. President Mahama painted a picture that bore very little resemblance to the reality that is today’s Ghana. “We have made cocoa farming attractive”, that the NHIS was flourishing, that he had overcome the energy crisis. Really? Mr President, are you living in the same Ghana as the rest of us?
I was forced to the conclusion that the President chose to tell us a tale of two Ghanas during his 3hr 40-minute speech. There is the Ghana inhabited by the President, his family, friends and a small select group.
Then there is the real Ghana inhabited by the remaining 27 million of us.
I felt, in the circumstances, that the public interest would be well-served by my undertaking of today, where I would attempt to place before the Ghanaian people, in this critical year of choice, the Real State of the Nation. It would be a solemn exercise, devoid of gimmickry.
Everywhere I go, every survey I read, every discussion I listen to, the one recurring theme is the problem of jobs and unemployment in our country. Millions of Ghanaians wake up each day to the soul-destroying reality of joblessness and they spend their energies looking for non-existent jobs. Young people finish school, acquire qualifications and end up frustrated with no prospects of a job or a career. Does the President have no evidence of the scale of graduate unemployment in this country? Has the President no evidence of the large number of teacher and nursing trainees who, 3 years and more after completion of their training, are virtually all sitting at home without being afforded the opportunity to offer the critical services for which they have been trained? The President came to Parliament and gave no indication whatsoever he was aware of the enormity of the unemployment problem that faces our country, especially its youth. Why ignore the clear evidence of this canker that characterises the true state of the economy? We heard nothing of the bold and radical measures that would encourage enterprises to expand, or that would help build new businesses in agriculture or industry to generate the hundreds of thousands of jobs that our youth need.
Instead the President mentioned the prospects of a few jobs here and there and went on to make an embarrassing display of a few vulnerable Ghanaians. It was a sad spectacle in propaganda, one that did a disservice to the image of our Parliament. It appears we have a President who is out of touch with the country he is governing.
My fellow Ghanaians, as I listened in disbelief to some of the things the President said, it soon became clear that he was taking liberties with the Ghanaian people that should not be accepted. Thanks to modern technology, the President was still on his feet in Parliament when word started coming from around the country challenging the veracity of many of the claims he was making.
Far from the work progressing on the 60-bed district hospital in Salaga, as the President claimed, those who live in that community describe the site as “fenced, locked and abandoned”. The residents of Hohoe have said their town roads were done during the Kufuor administration. Ladies and gentlemen, it is disrespectful to the people of Ghana and to our republican institutions for the President to exhibit such a cavalier attitude to facts in a formal address to the nation.
For the past month, there have been regular stories about water shortages in different parts of our country, Nsawam-Adoagyiri and Winneba being the headline areas. Less than 24 hours after the President stood in Parliament displaying Madam Naomi Appiah Korang, a teacher and a known NDC activist from Kyebi, the Member of Parliament for Keta from his own party was in the House telling the country about the desperate water situation in his constituency. Again, on that Friday, his Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing was in the House to give an account of the water situation in the country very much at variance with the complacent picture painted by the President. There had been no mention of water problems from the President in his address.
By all standards, we have a drought situation in this country; there has been no rain for about three months, the level of water in our dams is dangerously low, large tracts of farm lands and crops have been lost in bush fires. But the President was so determined only to find and tell good news that he omitted to say a word about the drought.
I crave your indulgence to appreciate that we have not called you here to a line by line, sector by sector rebuttal of the 3-hour 40-minute address. Our purpose is to illustrate that the real state of the nation is one of a nation in crisis, a reality the President chose to ignore.
The President sought to explain the theatrical show he staged in Parliament with the claim he was providing us with evidence for the claims he was making about the state of the nation. I am afraid it did not work and it turned out to be an embarrassing exercise in mediocrity, to borrow a form of words that is doubtlessly familiar to our President.
I join the President to celebrate with his sixteen “success” stories. Unfortunately, their stories do not constitute the reality that is present day Ghana. For every LEAP beneficiary that allegedly now has ten pigs, I can point to ten hardworking individuals whose businesses have collapsed due to the unfavourable economic conditions.
In fact, the president also omitted an important group of beneficiaries of his government over the last 8 years. These include:
- Alfred Woyome and other beneficiaries of the ‘create, loot and share’ judgement debt brigade
- the beneficiaries of the looting of the SADA guinea fowl and tree planting schemes
- the beneficiaries of the looting of the GYEEDA schemes
- the beneficiaries of the looting of the Smartty’s bus rebranding scheme
Why did the President fail to bring these people to Parliament? Further, for the sixteen who were bussed to Parliament, we can populate this room, indeed the nearby Ohene Djan Sports Stadium, with thousands and thousands of the young unemployed from Osu, La, Teshie and Nungua, the catchment areas of this auditorium, not to speak of the millions in the rest of the country.
Again, what about the teacher and nursing trainees whose allowances have been cancelled? What about teachers who have worked for 2 years and are only paid 3 months’ salary arrears? What about the children of Kperisi primary in the Upper West region who have no desks or chairs, so lie on the floor for their lessons to the detriment of their health? What about people who cannot afford hospital fees because of the virtual return of the cash and carry system? What about our Black Queens who, after winning the gold medal at the All Africa Games, were treated so shabbily by this government which has refused to honour its promises to them? Is the President saying that he has no evidence of these? Why did he not bring them to Parliament?
Fellow Ghanaians, running a nation and reporting on its state is serious business. It should not be reduced to a public relations activity. It should be a comprehensive illustration to our people of what the big picture is.
NPP Flagbearer, Nana Addo on Monday presented what he calls the ‘Real State of the Nation Address’ at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra.
The address was a direct response to President Mahama’s constitutionally mandated state of the nation address delivered last Thursday February, 25.
The NPP has described Mahama’s address as disappointing and only filled with half-truths.
Nana Addo among other things, described Mahama’s ‘evidence-based’ State of the Nation Address as an embarrassing exercise that shows mediocrity.
Below is Nana Addo’s full address.
SPEECH BY NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO, 2016 NPP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, ON “THE REAL STATE OF THE NATION – A NATION IN CRISIS”, ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016, AT THE GHANA COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS.
I have been traveling around Ghana and meeting our people for much of my adult life. I have seen poverty, I have seen suffering, but, through it all, I have been encouraged and sustained by the willpower and determination of the Ghanaian people.
It might well be because of my determination to look out for the good and the positive in our situation that it has taken me a while to face up to the fact that our country is currently in a state of crisis. In all the years that I have been in public life, I have never seen the level of desperation and depth of despair that today have become the daily existence of the majority of people in our country.
This is Ghana, our Ghana, a nation where most people, in times of trouble, try and lift themselves up and do something to improve upon their circumstances.
Today, that spark which pushes us and gives us the determination to overcome is disappearing and a sense of gloom is enveloping our nation.
When the President of the Republic rose before Parliament, in fulfilment of his constitutional obligation, to deliver his Message on the State of the Nation, last Thursday, I watched on television in the hope that he would capture the mood and the difficulties that face our people daily. I waited to hear him admit that we are in a crisis and I willed him on to offer a glimmer of hope and ask all of us Ghanaians to help resolve the crisis in which we find ourselves. I wanted him to admit that ours was, indeed, a nation in crisis
Unfortunately, millions of Ghanaians, including my humble self, waited in vain. President Mahama painted a picture that bore very little resemblance to the reality that is today’s Ghana. “We have made cocoa farming attractive”, that the NHIS was flourishing, that he had overcome the energy crisis. Really? Mr President, are you living in the same Ghana as the rest of us?
I was forced to the conclusion that the President chose to tell us a tale of two Ghanas during his 3hr 40-minute speech. There is the Ghana inhabited by the President, his family, friends and a small select group.
Then there is the real Ghana inhabited by the remaining 27 million of us.
I felt, in the circumstances, that the public interest would be well-served by my undertaking of today, where I would attempt to place before the Ghanaian people, in this critical year of choice, the Real State of the Nation. It would be a solemn exercise, devoid of gimmickry.
Everywhere I go, every survey I read, every discussion I listen to, the one recurring theme is the problem of jobs and unemployment in our country. Millions of Ghanaians wake up each day to the soul-destroying reality of joblessness and they spend their energies looking for non-existent jobs. Young people finish school, acquire qualifications and end up frustrated with no prospects of a job or a career. Does the President have no evidence of the scale of graduate unemployment in this country? Has the President no evidence of the large number of teacher and nursing trainees who, 3 years and more after completion of their training, are virtually all sitting at home without being afforded the opportunity to offer the critical services for which they have been trained? The President came to Parliament and gave no indication whatsoever he was aware of the enormity of the unemployment problem that faces our country, especially its youth. Why ignore the clear evidence of this canker that characterises the true state of the economy? We heard nothing of the bold and radical measures that would encourage enterprises to expand, or that would help build new businesses in agriculture or industry to generate the hundreds of thousands of jobs that our youth need.
Instead the President mentioned the prospects of a few jobs here and there and went on to make an embarrassing display of a few vulnerable Ghanaians. It was a sad spectacle in propaganda, one that did a disservice to the image of our Parliament. It appears we have a President who is out of touch with the country he is governing.
My fellow Ghanaians, as I listened in disbelief to some of the things the President said, it soon became clear that he was taking liberties with the Ghanaian people that should not be accepted. Thanks to modern technology, the President was still on his feet in Parliament when word started coming from around the country challenging the veracity of many of the claims he was making.
Far from the work progressing on the 60-bed district hospital in Salaga, as the President claimed, those who live in that community describe the site as “fenced, locked and abandoned”. The residents of Hohoe have said their town roads were done during the Kufuor administration. Ladies and gentlemen, it is disrespectful to the people of Ghana and to our republican institutions for the President to exhibit such a cavalier attitude to facts in a formal address to the nation.
For the past month, there have been regular stories about water shortages in different parts of our country, Nsawam-Adoagyiri and Winneba being the headline areas. Less than 24 hours after the President stood in Parliament displaying Madam Naomi Appiah Korang, a teacher and a known NDC activist from Kyebi, the Member of Parliament for Keta from his own party was in the House telling the country about the desperate water situation in his constituency. Again, on that Friday, his Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing was in the House to give an account of the water situation in the country very much at variance with the complacent picture painted by the President. There had been no mention of water problems from the President in his address.
By all standards, we have a drought situation in this country; there has been no rain for about three months, the level of water in our dams is dangerously low, large tracts of farm lands and crops have been lost in bush fires. But the President was so determined only to find and tell good news that he omitted to say a word about the drought.
I crave your indulgence to appreciate that we have not called you here to a line by line, sector by sector rebuttal of the 3-hour 40-minute address. Our purpose is to illustrate that the real state of the nation is one of a nation in crisis, a reality the President chose to ignore.
The President sought to explain the theatrical show he staged in Parliament with the claim he was providing us with evidence for the claims he was making about the state of the nation. I am afraid it did not work and it turned out to be an embarrassing exercise in mediocrity, to borrow a form of words that is doubtlessly familiar to our President.
I join the President to celebrate with his sixteen “success” stories. Unfortunately, their stories do not constitute the reality that is present day Ghana. For every LEAP beneficiary that allegedly now has ten pigs, I can point to ten hardworking individuals whose businesses have collapsed due to the unfavourable economic conditions.
In fact, the president also omitted an important group of beneficiaries of his government over the last 8 years. These include:
- Alfred Woyome and other beneficiaries of the ‘create, loot and share’ judgement debt brigade
- the beneficiaries of the looting of the SADA guinea fowl and tree planting schemes
- the beneficiaries of the looting of the GYEEDA schemes
- the beneficiaries of the looting of the Smartty’s bus rebranding scheme
Why did the President fail to bring these people to Parliament? Further, for the sixteen who were bussed to Parliament, we can populate this room, indeed the nearby Ohene Djan Sports Stadium, with thousands and thousands of the young unemployed from Osu, La, Teshie and Nungua, the catchment areas of this auditorium, not to speak of the millions in the rest of the country.
Again, what about the teacher and nursing trainees whose allowances have been cancelled? What about teachers who have worked for 2 years and are only paid 3 months’ salary arrears? What about the children of Kperisi primary in the Upper West region who have no desks or chairs, so lie on the floor for their lessons to the detriment of their health? What about people who cannot afford hospital fees because of the virtual return of the cash and carry system? What about our Black Queens who, after winning the gold medal at the All Africa Games, were treated so shabbily by this government which has refused to honour its promises to them? Is the President saying that he has no evidence of these? Why did he not bring them to Parliament?
Fellow Ghanaians, running a nation and reporting on its state is serious business. It should not be reduced to a public relations activity. It should be a comprehensive illustration to our people of what the big picture is.
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