The leader of the Minority in Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has told President Akufo-Addo that Ghanaians have already bid him good bye.
“I conclude by saying that Ghanaians will not miss President Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. We know you are going. We can only wish you bye-bye, the Ajumaku-Eyan-Essiam Member of Parliament, Ato Forson said, when he was asked to second the motion for adjournment, after the president had finished delivering his state of the nation address.
Ato Forson, in a snappy reaction to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s message on the State of the Nation delivered on the floor of the House yesterday, described as hopeless the current state of the country.
He backed his claim with the huge number of professionals leaving the shores of the nation in search of greener pastures.
According to Cassiel Ato Forson, the country is in a total mess and would require a visionary leader like John Dramani Mahama, a former President of the land and now the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to fix it.
The minority leader, a Development Economist, told the House that the unemployment rate in the country had risen to unprecedented levels and, therefore, posing as a security threat.
In his analysis, he said “Mr. Speaker, the unemployment situation in our country is at a point of crisis. Out of our current population of about 33 million, only 11.3 million are in some form of employment.
“This number includes peasant farmers. This means two out of every three Ghanaians are jobless. This is what Development Economists call NINJAS (No income, No Jobs and No Assets)”, he noted.
He added “again, about 30% of our youth are currently unemployed. Another 4.5 million+ of employable Ghanaians are outside the labour force. Simply put, they have given up on their search for jobs, out of years of disappointment and frustration”.
What was so worrying about the leadership of the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government, he further stated, was the number of government appointees they keep on adding up, despite the debilitating effect on the public purse.
Lamentations of Mahama
However, the Majority Leader and MP for Effutu, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, moving the motion for adjournment of the House, urged the minority leader to tone down, since the majority side was ready to debate the President’s message on the State of the Nation.
He told the House that the Majority will revisit the lamentations of John Dramani Mahama when he was the President of the Republic, to enable Ghanaians compare his track record and that of President Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia, to make informed decision as to who they should vote for.
“I have with me the 2014, 2013 and the 2015 State of the Nation Addresses delivered by the former President, John Dramani Mahama, and all these were full of lamentations. So, Mr. Speaker, we shall revisit them”, he stated.
Debate on the President’s Message on the State of the Nation will begin on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, February 29, 2024.
By Stephen Odoi-Larbi, Parliament House
