Even before government communicators respond to Nana Akufo-Addo’s version of what he calls the ‘real state of the nation address’, President John Dramani Mahama has taken to social media platform Facebook, to respond to the issues raised by his main contender for elections in November.
In a Facebook post minutes after Nana Addo ended his speech on Monday, President Mahama said the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), is only scheming to minimize and discredit achievements chalked by his administration in the past three years.
[contextly_sidebar id=”scRrGgF8NhQDYQGSHplCin1giU1uBB7e”]He said inasmuch as the NPP candidate had the right to express himself, it would be wrong for the party to try to minimize their achievements and the depth of Ghana’s transformation in the period under review.
“The opposition is exercising its democratic right to criticize, which is a proof that we are living in a healthy democracy. However, it would be wrong to try to minimize our achievements and the depth of Ghana’s transformation in the last three years. For me, as President, these last three years are a story of hope– a hope shared by so many of us. This is because what we have been able to achieve so far is for all of us, and it was made possible only through the continuous participation of all of us.”
He added, “The most important fact about the transformative stories I shared last week, the most fundamental truth about them is that they are not my achievements, they are our achievements! They are Ghana’s achievements!Step by step, we built something important, something that lays the foundation for irreversible improvements in the lives of all of us! We worked hard every day, we kept the faith, we kept moving forward – this is how we achieved all this!”
The NPP’s ‘Real State of the Nation Address’, according to Nana Addo, was to inform Ghanaians on the reality on the ground.
Delivering his address, Nana Akufo-Addo, among other things, said the President’s State of the Nation Address was full of tales that did not reflect the real state of affairs in the country.
“When the President of the Republic rose before Parliament in engulfment of his constitutional obligation to deliver his message on the state of the nation last Thursday, I watched on television in the hope that he will capture the difficulties that face our people daily. I waited to hear him admit that we are in crisis and I expected him to offer a glimmer of hope and ask all of us Ghanaians to help resolve the crisis in which we find ourselves…Unfortunately millions of Ghanaians including my humble self, waited in vain. President Mahama painted the picture that bore very little resemblance to the reality that is today’s Ghana.”
“The economy is on a reverse trend,” Nana Addo noted. “In dollar terms, this NDC Government has borrowed some US$37 Billion in seven years. Last year, interest payments amounted to more than GHc9.6 billion, more than the total debt stock of GHc9.5 billion at the end of 2008.”
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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