There was no pressure on Akufo-Addo to ease restrictions - Hadzide

There was no pressure on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to ease restrictions imposed on Ghanaians to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Deputy Information Minister, Pius Hadzide has said.

On Sunday, 31 May 2020, Akufo-Addo eased certain restrictions as part of his government’s first phase of opening up the country.

For instance, he announced the re-open of schools for only final year students from JHS to tertiary, allowed churches and mosques to open but with a limited number of worshippers not exceeding 100 and also expanded the number of persons who can attend private burials to 100.

Some critics of the president said he was pressured by certain unseen stakeholders to ease the restrictions.

But reacting to this on Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5FM on Monday, 1 June 2020, Mr Hadzide said: “There was no pressure on the president to ease restrictions. The President willingly invited stakeholders to discuss ways to ease the restrictions having said that we cannot continue to live under restrictions forever.”

“Maybe because he’s a lawyer, he doesn’t succumb to pressure, he understands democracy and so he listens to divergent opinions. It has nothing to do with pressure,” he added.

According to the Deputy Information Minister, although there were lots of proposals on the President’s desks, there was no pressure on him to make the decisions he made on Sunday.