NDC’s State Of The Nation Address (2022/23)

At its first in the series of what it calls the ”true state of the nation address”, the National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah launched a blistering attack on President Akufo-Addo saying his government has opened wide cleavages in the body politic where the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. The Chairman of the NDC noted that Ghana arrived at this ignominious point on the backs of corruption and dishonesty on the part of the government which says one thing and does another.

”They said No IMF, now they are cup in hand begging the IMF to bail them out.” ”They said, Ghana Beyond Aid, yet they keep borrowing in the full glare of the public as if the latter cannot read in-between the lines. ”The man at the lectern raised more examples of NPP’s failure to live by its word and these drew chuckles from the audience.

The NDC is of the view that the governing party which is the New Patriotic Party (NPP), bathes in luxury whilst the masses wallowed in poverty, a claim the opposition backed with its own figures. It said the amount of money spent on government activities both within and outside of the country was whooping, just as COVID-19 funds being provisions by the international community were misapplied.

According to Mr. Asiedu Nketiah, it is ironic that so much is spent on themselves as government whilst ordinary people who are told to adjust to the harsh economic realities such as the rising cost of goods and services are sometimes cowered to submission with the misinterpretation of their reactions to be dissent.

The NDC also talked about the electoral process which it considers crucial to the immediate future of Ghana. The party said it was improper for the Electoral Commission to make the Ghana card the only prerequisite for voting in the next general elections. He said the electoral rules are explicit and unequivocal on the matter of identity registration for elections and that allows the voter guarantor system.

It said, the gloom hanging on the nation can only be paled out if the Ghanaian voter gleans through the current ”political chicanery and facade” and take the important decision of either living with it or throwing the baby and the bad water away for a renewal.

The statement delivered by the NDC is the counterweight to the constitutionally-mandated one made by President Akufo-Addo a week earlier. While the government pins the challenges facing Ghana on the impact of external shocks such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the 2020 global pandemic, the opposition dismisses them and calls the depths to which Ghana has sunk a tell-tale of pure mismanagement. He wondered why only Ghana has been so battered by these when her neighbors showed resilience and operated normally.

The event held in Accra was attended by NDC bigwigs including Dr. Kwabena Duffour. The former President, John Dramani Mahama happened to be in the Ashanti region campaigning for the flagbearer slot which the former Central Bank Governor Dr. Duffour has also set sights on.