The Minority Leader in Parliament, Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson, in a recent address to Parliament has stressed on major failures of the government. He noted that contrary to what the government may want Ghanaians to believe, Ghanaians are worse off currently than they were when the NPP captured power and formed a government in 2017.
He indicated that the Akufo-Addo administration has not made any substantial increase in access to electricity in seven years. He stated that the incumbent government increased access to electricity by only 5.6% as opposed to an increment of 22.74% achieved by the Mahama-Atta-Mills administration between 2008 and 2016.
He argued that the NPP’s claim that the government is on course to achieve universal access to electricity is wishful thinking on the part of the government. He argued that for the government to achieve universal access to electricity, it must expand electricity by about 11.5%, a fit that is not possible in nine months.
“Mr. Speaker, Ghana’s historical challenge with stable electricity supply was comprehensively resolved by President John Mahama in December 2015. Unfortunately, today, dumsor is back under this Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government. Households and businesses are experiencing sustained power outages. GRIDco has been shedding in excess of 450 megawatts of power each day”.
Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson
Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson further claimed that the government failed to admit to the seriousness of the challenges of the power sector let alone provide a timetable to help Ghanaians plan their lives. He noted that the government’s admission or otherwise to the resurfacing of dumsor is redundant as every Ghanaian at the moment is aware of the power sector challenges.
The Minority Leader also argued that the state of education under the Akufo-Addo government is chaotic. He reasoned that no government in the Fourth Republic has mismanaged and mishandled Ghana’s educational sector to the point of compromising the future of our children as the incumbent government has done.
He further indicated that basic schools in the country have gone six years without curriculum-based textbooks, an incident that steadily reversed most of the gains attained by successive governments over the years. He maintained that the NPP’s flagship program, the Free SHS is a failure because though the initiative had increased enrollment, learning outcomes are poor.
“Rt. Hon. Speaker, I now turn my attention to the state of agriculture, and here too, the story is no different. The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government told us that it was Planting for Food and Jobs, little did we know it was planting for food insecurity, inflation, and joblessness”.
Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson
More ‘Revelations’
Accordingly, the Member of Parliament accused the incumbent government of wasting resources on the agricultural sector and achieving nothing. He noted that the country is currently among the top five nations with the highest food inflation rate in the world. “In most cases, prices of everyday household staples have increased by over 500%. A recent World Bank report revealed that about 4 million Ghanaians are food insecure” he added.
Subsequently, Hon. Ato Forson blamed the government for collapsing almost all State-Owned Enterprises. He indicated that the Ghana Cocoa Board had made so many losses over the last seven years that it is unable to raise an annual cocoa syndicated loan of $800 million at a record interest rate of 8%. “The state of Cocobod today epitomizes the toxic mix of corruption and reckless mismanagement that this NPP government has served Ghanaians in every facet of the economy,” he remarked.
Touching on the country’s finances and fiscal policy, he noted that the Bank of Ghana (BoG) is currently bankrupt due to excessive internal borrowing. He opined that the bank recorded a colossal loss of over GHS60.8 billion and a negative equity of over GHS55 billion and is merely existing in name only.
He further alleged that the Director of BoG and his two deputies illegally printed monies to fund the government’s over-bloated expenditure.
Interestingly, Hon. Ato Forson described the current government as the most insensitive towards the citizens in the history of Ghana. He indicated that good governance and the rule of law are at their lowest ebb in the history of the Fourth Republic.
“Gone are the days when Presidents operated an open-door policy and subjected themselves to transparency and accountability by the media through Presidential press encounters. In the life of this government, Presidential townhall meetings have become a thing of the past. This has effectively doomed any opportunity for citizens to hold the government accountable”.
Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson
Moreover, he indicated that press freedom deteriorated over the years. He alleged that journalists are being vandalized by state-sponsored groups that seek to keep them quiet and media houses are being raided constantly to instill fear in the media. While Ghana ranked 2nd in Africa and 26th in the world on the Press Freedom Index in 2016, our dear country now ranks 9th in Africa and 62nd in the world in 2023” he stated.
He also argued that the impending General Elections are a source of security concern to journalists as they remain targets to people seeking to prevent them from performing their duties.
The Minority Leader made these comments during Monday 11th March sitting of Parliament. He opined that contrary to the State of the Nation Address presented to parliament by the President, his submission is the true state of the nation which is not seen through a rose-colored glass but is reality.
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