Flashback: State of the Nation’s Address now ‘irrelevant’ – Amoako Baah

Today marks five years since the former Head of the History and Political Science department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Richard Amoako Baah declared the yearly State of the Nation’s Address delivered by presidents an irrelevant exercise.

According to him, the annual ritual has become a platform for spouting rhetoric and not an opportunity to bring focus and reflect the reality of the state of the economy.

“The President does not have the reputation of delivering on his promises and so appearing in Parliament with the same issue over and over again has made it irrelevant,” he bemoaned.

He made the statement in reaction to the then president, John Dramani Mahama’s third State of the Nation’s address since he assumed office in an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem.

Dr. Baah suggested that, former president Mahama should have used the platform to tell Ghanaians the actual problems the country was facing then, rather than to rehash promises when he was campaigning to be elected into office.

He also noted that the presidents use the State of the Nation’s Address to score more vote ‘points’ during general elections, as they use the period for massive campaigns.

“It has now become a campaign strategy for every president to just come to parliament and talk,” he bewailed.

Read the story originally published in 2015 below:

Political Science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr. Richard Amoako Baah has described the annual State of the Nation address delivered by President's as “irrelevant”.

According to him, the annual ritual has become a platform for spouting rhetorics and not an opportunity to bring focus and reflect the reality of the state of the economy.

The 2015 State of the Nation's address delivered by President Mahama yesterday was no different, Dr Baah maintains.

The President's address, his 3rd since he assumed office, was interlaced with numerous promises including a pledge to end the erratic power supply in the country.

But reacting to the address on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem on Friday, Dr. Amoako Baah said he expected Mr. Mahama to use the platform to tell Ghanaians what the actual problem is rather than rehashing the whole issue.

“The President does not have the reputation of delivering on his promises and so appearing in Parliament with the same issue over and over again has made it irrelevant. It has now become a campaign strategy for every president to just come to parliament and talk,” he bemoaned.