Yes, President Is In Hurry – MPs Argue

President Akufo-Addo's aim of quickly getting to work in order to fix the country's ailing economy in his popular phrase 'I am in a hurry and in great hurry' to fix the economy came under contentious spotlight when the minority cautioned the President to hasten slowly otherwise he would 'crash' and eventually dismantle things in his haste to fix the economy.

This came up during the continuation of the debate on the President's “State of the Nation's” address by MPs in the House

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for North Tongu in the Volta Region, Samuel OkudzetoAblakwa and the NDC MP for Akatsi North, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe had expressed great worry about haste with which the president is conducting business of government and the possibility of getting important things wrongly done.

They said the President has so far had many things wrongly done in his self-confessed haste to tackle the problems of the country during his first two months in office.

However, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Bunkpurugu in the Northern region, Solomon Namliit Boar said looking at the level of neglect,  deprivation, hardship , unemployment and high cost of education, the president ought to be in a great hurry to implement policies and bring relief to Ghanaians and also ameliorate the suffering of the masses .

He said the president was in hurry to implement his 'one district one factory' policy to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth in the country.

The Bunkpurugu MP also indicated that President Akufo-Addo was in a hurry to roll out his 'one village, one dam' policy in the northern part of the country in order to boost agriculture and increase agricultural production in the country.

“MrSpeaker, contrary to the argument of the minority, President Akufo-Addo must indeed be in a great hurry to create more job opportunities for the people in the various constituencies by releasing $1 million to each of the 275 constituencies across the country for further development,” Hon Boar pointed out.

He said the President wants to quickly reduce waste and corruption in the system by ensuring that the procurement laws of the country were respected and the penchant for sole-sourcing drastically reduced to save a lot money for the nation.

He mentioned some of the waste and corruption in dubious contracts as the rot under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) during the tenure of the previous administration where sole-sourcing was used to award afforestation contract of GH¢32.4 million to an individual who wasted the money without executing the contract.

“It was outrageous for the previous government to give GH¢32.4 million afforestation contract where the contractor was tasked to plant five million trees at 300 afforestation sites and the project was partly undertaken in the dry season where all the trees died,” he said.

He said the president meant well for the nation and will as a matter of great urgency restore hope for many Ghanaians living in a state of despair.

The MP for Nsawam/Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh in his contribution said what the president said in parliament was the stark reality on the ground pointing out that huge debt stock left by the previous NDC government was an act of insensitivity.

He said the free senior high secondary education will be enjoyed by all Ghanaians, and all parents, no matter the political affiliation, can direct thefees which they are no more going to pay, into doing something important for their families.

“Mr speaker, the free SHS would be enjoyed by the constituents of the Honourable Minority leader and my good friend KwabenaMintahAkandoh from Juaboso,” he said to a loud 'hear, hear' from the majority side..

The MP for Akatsi North in his argument said in the president's quest to quickly implement the free SHS policy, he must ensure that it does not sacrifice quality for quantity.

He also said that it would not be fair for only the new entrants into SHS to enjoy the free SHS at the beginning of next academic year.

“All Ghanaians children in secondary schools must be made to enjoy the free SHS otherwise it would be discriminatory,” he said.

The MP for North Tongu said the President's promise to create jobs runs contrary to his order to terminate the appointments of 22,802 people who had been given the green light by the previous government to be employed in the education sector.

By Thomas Fosu Jnr