Parliament to host Akufo-Addo
Akufo-Addo expected to address the nation in accordance with Article 67
The Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin has refuted claims that President Akufo-Addo is refusing to address the nation per the dictates of the constitution.
According to him, the president is ready to appear before the house but is only waiting for the speaker who is currently absent, and leadership to agree on a date.
Speaking on the floor he said, “our duty as a House is to program Mr. President to come. It’s not Mr. President who is refusing to come. Mr. President is ready; it is for our leadership and Mr. Speaker to program him. Mr. Speaker is unavoidably absent, so, the leadership of the House and the Speaker should program the President to come and give the message on the state of the nation,” he said.
He insisted that the president has not delayed in delivering the 2022 State of the Nation Address (SONA).
“Don’t say that Mr. President has delayed. Mr. President has not,” Afenyo-Markin indicated.
President Akufo-Addo is expected to address the nation at the beginning of each session of Parliament in accordance with Article 67 of the current 1992 Constitution.
Akufo-Addo will be expected to present his plans for the next 3 years of his governance.
This includes government programmes and what strategies the government intends to implement, how to achieve them and also rally the people of Ghana towards accelerated national development and progress among others.
Last week, Member of Parliament for Juaboso Constituency, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, raised concerns about why the majority in Parliament has failed to inform the house when Akufo-Addo will be appearing before the house for the State of the Nation Address (SONA).
According to him, the posture of Akufo-Addo with regards to SONA indicates he has no good news for the nation as he would have run to parliament if otherwise.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament after the Business, the lawmaker said the majority should be bold enough to tell the House when Akufo-Addo will appear to make the address.
“….Mr Speaker as I speak to you now, we don’t even know when Akufo-Addo is coming to address the nation and the leader tells us we are preparing our house it means he should be able to tell us when the president will be on this floor because it has never happened before. Except that he has no good news for the nation. Because indeed Mr Speaker, if he had good news for the nation he will be running to come and tell us. So Mr Speaker, the leader should be bold enough to tell us when the president will be on the floor of the house,” Akandoh stated.
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Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin