The Member of Parliament for Ashiaman, Ernest Norgbe, has intimated that the President should not always talk about only the positives during the State of the Nation’s Address.
According to Mr. Norgbe, the President in his address was also to highlight on the negativities so that moving forward, the nation will know how to solve those problems. He averred that addressing the actual issues is what was needed and not for the President to speak on positive happenings only.
Mr. Norgbe was of the view that the address by the President was not the true reflection of the state currently. He averred that the President was to update the public on the happening and not tout achievements which doesn’t show the true state of the nation.
“What is the state of our economy? What is the employment rate and inflation rate in the country? What is the ordinary Ghanaian feeling on the streets? These are what we want to hear because these are the true state of the nation and that’s what we were expecting the President to come and talk about, not give us promises.”
Ernest Norgbe
Mr. Ernest Norgbe indicated that government has been questioned about COVID-19 funds but has refused to account for it. He added that it has also been told about the rate of unemployment but the President did not touch on any.
“Yes Appiatse is a town they are trying to restore but there are other equally important things in this country. What is happening to the economy? Our debt stock, the borrowing, the crime rate- these are things we were expecting the President to talk about. You are saying that COVID-19 has brought a lot of problems in the county and we are asking that, how are we going to solve these problems? Were you able to identify the incidents, the problems that we have encountered out of the COVID and proffer solutions to these things?”
Ernest Norgbe
President must take blame for Agenda 111
Touching on the President’s admission to some negatives, especially to the timeline for Agenda 111 being ambitious, Mr. Norgbe was of the view that it was a promise the President gave and couldn’t fulfill as such, no one could be blamed. He indicated that the President in this regard has to blame himself and no one else.
“You’ve realized that you may not have enough funding for this program so you have turned around to say it was over ambitious. Definitely, Ghanaians will help government to build the country but what is the position of the government itself? ”
Ernest Norgbe
The Ashiaman MP intimated that speaking about the little achievement of the government is not what Ghanaians want at this point in time. “What is happening at the pump, to the COVID-19 funds, is what we want to know. What is happening in the market is what we want to know.”
Ernest Norgbe averred that the economic woes cannot be blamed on the Ukraine-Russia war because the nation was in the situation before the war started. He averred that although COVID-19 can be attributed to it, it cannot also be done entirely. As, such, he urged government to tackle the issue by being innovative to proffer solutions to these problems.
“When did this Ukraine war start? Isn’t it just three weeks ago? And now we have to use the Ukraine war also as the basis why our economy is on its knees. The World Bank representative told us that we started facing this economic hardship since 2018 even before COVID so, it’s not the Ukraine war.”
Ernest Norgbe
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