Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, believes the Akufo Addo administration is currently running the country on "auto pilot".
According to him, the president "lacks a clear cut vision to steer the country out of his own created economic mess".
Speaking on Okay fm's "Ade Akye Abia" programme hours after the president's address to the Ghanaians on what his government is doing to address the current hardship which seems to be bringing the economy on its knees, Hon Ablakwa, who is the Ranking Member on Foreign Affairs, considered the "Fellow Ghanaians" engagement as empty and uninspiring.
"The president seems to be running the country on auto pilot because his statement lacked focus and clearly did not bring hope to the ordinary Ghanaian whose capital has been eaten up by the current economic mess the country is facing," he slammed.
Enumerating some few things the president should have done, he stated that "Just imagine how President Akufo-Addo would have been celebrated by Ghanaians tonight if he said the following:
1. I am sorry for the economic difficulties I have imposed on you;
2. I have with immediate effect fired Ken Ofori-Atta and Charles Adu Boahen;
3. I am reducing the size of my government by 40%;
4. I am slashing taxes on petroleum products;
5. I am instituting regular meetings with Ghana’s only 2 surviving former Presidents: President Kufuor and President Mahama to share their rich experiences and insights with me as we navigate this crisis;
6. I publicly commit not to charter a €20,000 an hour luxury jet for the rest of my term;
7. I suspend all ex-gratia payments and would be reviewing Article 71 together with comprehensive constitutional amendments;
8. My Cathedral Project is hereby suspended;
9. I am establishing a special task force to assist the Auditor-General in retrieving the billions of Ghana Cedis misappropriated by public officials;
10. I will revive TOR within the next 6 months so we can refine our own crude, attain better fuel prices on the domestic market and create more jobs;
11. I am initiating steps to build our own gold refinery;
12. I have requested all retirees to go home in order to create hundreds of jobs for the youth;
13. I am initiating steps to renegotiate all existing contracts in the extractive sector;
14. I have dissolved the Economic Management Team and would be reconstituting a new one to feature prominent Ghanaians regardless of how critical they have been of my leadership. I shall reach out to Kwame Pianim, Sam Jonah, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, Prof. Godfred Bokpin, and a host of others;
15. I shall comply with Article 36(5) of the 1992 Constitution and present my vision and coordinated programme to Parliament this week.
Watch & Listen to the interview below:
Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]
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There is something fundamentally wrong about how speculation or perception is relied upon to take hold of real facts when you hear some academics, lawyers, and politicians make certain statements to argue out their stances at the expense of informed opinions. I believe there is a lot of intellectual dishonesty in our political space in Ghana. Or do we make incorrect assumptions? We wrongly measure the intellect of people by their level of proficiency in the Queen's language. When such people fail to effectively or intellectually communicate their views, they tend to be insulting and spew lies. Unfortunately, such characters abound in the NDC and their cohorts in the paid-press. They are the elements who have jumped on the president, calling him names and hurling insults at him after his candid address. That the president is running the country on an auto-pilot basis is a baseless polemic and factually incorrect. It only plays to the gallery of dishonest political propaganda to make cheap points. This clearly buttresses the points I have made above.
Look at who is talking . What prevented the NDC from building a gold refinery for Ghana,? was TOR running during the period of John Mahama? All those things listed can be handled without informing the people in advance. You are capitalizing on the current difficulties to create the impression that you would have performed magic. IMF is IMF, which ever road you used to get to them is negative. You have taken more than enough exgratia so you don't want first time MP's to also grab. But for Ghana when are where will you ever get to where you are. Before you entered politics did you have your own bicycle not to talk of a V8? But for Ghana politics will you venture going to Toyota Ghana company to ask of the price of a V8? Hmmmmm
Dullard
What is your party NDC alternative, you think this time Ghanaians will vote for you simple because there is hardship. Let your party comes with its programs and policies for us to assess them if indeed your programs and policies are the alternative to resolve our problem. You will not get the power on the silver platter this time unlike 2008 that your lies took Ghanaians by surprise. Baby with handsaw blade hide your gyato face some where.
Hon. immature MP. It is such loose talk that has brought us this far! You do not bring any alternative to the table of ideas.