SONA 2019: Akufo-Addo spoke big grammar – Avedzi

Member of Parliament for Ketu North, James Klutse Avedzi, has indicated that the 2019 State of the Nations Address delivered by President Akufo-Addo was full of English grammar rather than communicating the true state of the nation.

According to him, “What the President did was to put English together and tell Ghanaians English. All those things he said they will be doing, some of them he said we intend, we intend…..you are not making any effort."

The Minority Spokesperson on Finance said in an interview with GhanaWeb that most of the things the President described in his address were just a repetition of the previous state of the nation address.

“For instance about the tax exemption, he said we need to do something about it. He said the same thing in 2017; two years you haven't done anything about it….now you’re saying we need to do something about it…so when is the President going to do something about it,” he quizzed.

Delivering the State of the Nation Address Thursday, President Akufo-Addo stated clearly that the economy is at the heart of what he seeks to do, where there will be an improvement in the quality of life of the people of this country.



“I believe we are all now agreed that the fundamentals have to be sound if the economy is to flourish. We have just concluded a programme with the IMF, and, with continuing discipline, we shall sign off from the deal in April. This is the seventeenth time Ghana has had to go to the IMF in the sixty-two years of her independence,” he said.

The President added that “we cannot make the progress we all desire unless we are consistent and disciplined in the management of our economy. The yo-yo nature of the boom and bust has not helped us achieve our goal of sustained prosperity, and lift us out of poverty. We have gone through another round of painful impositions to get to where we are today with healthy fundamentals.”

But Mr Avedzi thinks otherwise. He believes that there is no ‘good news’ in ending the IMF programme in April 2019 as indicated by the President in his address.

“The programme ending in April 2019 is not good news. It should have ended by April 2018….you have extended it for one year and ending 2019 is not good news so you have not done anything extraordinary,” he noted.



Background

In 2015, the government of Ghana entered into a three-year agreement for 918 million dollars to, help restore others, restore macroeconomic stability and policy credibility.

The program aims to restore debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability to foster a return to high growth and job creation while protecting social spending.

But the government in May 2018 announced the extension of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme from December 2018 to April 2019 in order to boost efforts to stabilize the economy.

This would reassure markets and also bring in additional IMF funds to a programme under which Ghana was set to receive $918 million over three years.