TODAY, the President, H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will address Parliament for the first time as he delivers the State of the Nation Address (SONA). Today’s address will be Mr. Akufo-Addo’s maiden SONA since he was inaugurated as Ghana’s 5th President under the Fourth Republican Constitution.
ACCORDING to Wikipedia, SONA is an annual address by the president, often broadcast, which serves as a means to inform the nation about its present economic, political, and social condition. Furthermore, SONA serves as a vehicle for the president to sum up the accomplishments and plans of his/her programme of government both for a particular year and until the end of their term of office.
IT’S almost six weeks that President Akufo-Addo took over the mantle of leadership from former President John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). And just within this period some decisions have been made while it is obvious that a lot more will be made in the coming weeks, months and even years.
OBVIOUSLY, some of the decisions that will be taken by the Akufo-Addo administration will not be easy at all. But of course that is the more reason Ghanaians gave President Akufo-Addo and his New Patriotic Party (NPP) the mandate to steer affairs of this country for the next four years.
TODAY agrees with many that we cannot demand much from the president, especially within his short time of being in office, and as he was still in the process of assembling his team of ministers to help him execute his many electoral promises to improve the wellbeing of Ghanaians.
YESTERDAY we heard many views on the yet-to-be delivered SONA by the president including that of a Senior Lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr. Kwesi Jonah. The university don urged the president to use his SONA to inspire confidence and hope in his administration.
IT is good that well-meaning Ghanaians are calling on the president to assure the country that his party is still committed to fulfilling the myriad electoral promises that they made to the good people of this country in the run-up to the December 7, 2016 poll. And these promises include the Free SHS, one district, one factory and US$1 million for every constituency among others.
MORE importantly, we expect the president to be forthright with Ghanaians as he delivers his SONA today. Most often SONAs in this country have been used by past presidents to paint beautiful pictures of the economy, when in actual fact the situation was dire.
IT is against this backdrop that we urge the president to inform Ghanaians truthfully about the country’s present economic and social condition. In that manner the president can ask all of us to tighten our belts to face and surmount whatever challenges there are.
THUS President Akufo-Addo must seize this fine opportunity to reiterate and reassure Ghanaians that he is indeed committed to fulfilling his campaign promises irrespective of any social and economic condition that currently stares the nation in its face.
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