Ghana’s biggest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has delivered what it describes as the “True State of the Nation’s Address.”
NDC’s address, delivered by National Chairman of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah follows President Akufo-Addo’s March 8, State of the Nation’s Address which has been described by the party as a sham.
Mr Asiedu Nketiah on March 20, 2023, said President Akufo-Addo failed to capture the reality on the grounds regarding the state of the nation during the 2023 SoNA.
“…Ghanaians are experiencing excruciating hardships because the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government has offered utterly useless and reckless governance in the last seven years.
“We in the NDC, the only viable alternative to this bungling government, deem it necessary to straighten the records and expose the untruths presented to the nation through parliament by President Akufo-Addo and to highlight that our dire state is self-inflicted and deliberately so by this government,” he said.
Mr Asiedu Nketiah highlighted a number of issues he said the government failed to touch on during the 2023 SoNA, particularly the current economic crisis, and maintained that the President has lost touch with reality on the grounds.
“Today, the public debt stock which stood at 120 billion cedis in 2016 has increased to a whopping 600 billion, while the debt to GDP ratio that was 56% in 2016 now stands at 103%.
“Apart from the unsustainable debt of the country, the budget deficit which stood at 6.1% in 2016 now stands at a whopping 12% on the watch of the Bawumia-led Economic Management Team. This is after it rose to an unprecedented high of 15.7% in 2020 owing to the reckless election driven spending of the government.
He further noted that: “Per government’s own figures, the rate of inflation which stood at 15.4% as at December 2016, now stands at a hyper rate of over 52%. The lending rate that stood at about 25% on average in the year 2016, now stands between 38%- 45%; whilst exchange rate depreciation that stood at 9.6% for the year 2016 now stands at about 23% for the first two months of this year alone. This is after the Cedi depreciated by over 54% in the first eleven (11) months of last year, 2022, making it the worst performing currency in the world.”
Additionally, he lamented the downgrading of Ghana’s economy by key International Rating Agencies.
“From a stable credit rating of B- in 2016 under the NDC/Mahama administration, Ghana’s economy has been downgraded by all credit rating agencies to below junk status owing largely to the country’s default on its debt obligations on the watch of Bawumia,” he said.
“Despite being the luckiest and most resourced government in Ghana’s history, the Akufo Addo/Bawumia NPP government has the least to show in terms of socio-economic development,” the former Chief Scribe of the NDC added.
He further accused the government of draining the national coffers.
“The NPP has used all your money mainly for consumption. This is contrary to the President’s claim that his government has used “a large amount of the money we borrowed on road construction.”
He lamented that despite these challenges, the current administration has failed to accept responsibility and has delighted in falsifying the causes of the disaster currently being experienced.
“Even worse was the continuation of the discredited attempt to evade responsibility for the economic atrocities that have led us to this depressing point. Whilst they engage in vain glory, Ghanaians have to deal with the daily consequences of a collapsed economy,” he said.
Additionally, he said President Akufo-Addo in the address, failed to convince the Ghanaian people that there is any end in sight to “the suffering and pain that his government’s reckless and misguided policies have brought on us.”