Ghanaians won’t miss you – Ato Forson tells Akufo-Addo

The Minority in Parliament has been disputing some claims made by President Akufo-Addo while delivering the State of the Nation Address on Tuesday.

Whilst delivering the speech, the President among other things, touched on the Bawku conflict, Free SHS, amendment of the Constitutions, Ghana’s IMF deal, Health, Elections and Transport and several other issues.

But the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has asserted that the President failed to touch on the unemployment situation in the country, despite the declining rate of unemployment in the country.

Seconding a motion on the floor of Parliament on February 27, he emphasised that given the significant number of young people who are currently unemployed, that issue should have been among the key issues addressed in the speech.

“The unemployment situation in our country is at a critical point yet we did not hear a word from our President on this matter.

“Mr Speaker out of 33 million population, only 11.3 million are employed. This number includes peasant farmers. Mr Speaker the difference between the 33 million and the 11.3 million is what I call Nija, no income, no jobs, no assets.

“This means that 2 out of every 3 Ghanaians are unemployed. 30 per cent of the youth are jobless and about 4.5 million employable Ghanaian class are outside the labour force. This simply means that this number has simply given up on their search for jobs because of years of frustration and disappointment,” he said.

The Ajumako Enyan Esiam MP argued that it was a major contributory factor to the frequent immigration of Ghanaians seeking greener pastures.

Again, he emphasised that despite the urgent needs of the ordinary Ghanaian, he found it surprising that the President increased the size of the government in his recent reshuffle.

 “Mr Speaker, I am scandalised and shocked to the marrow to have noticed that our President following the recent ministerial reshuffle has increased the size of his government. Mr Speaker today we have the Minister of Finance Domestic and Minister of Finance International. Mr Speaker $1 today is GH₵13 cedis, during the time of President Mahama $1 was GH₵3.80. A vote for Alhaji Bawumia is a vote for President Akufo-Addo’s third term,” he added.

In light of this, he emphasised that given all these factors, Ghanaians would not miss President Akufo-Addo but bid him farewell.

 “To conclude on this matter, Ghanaians voted for Vice President and are paying for the Vice President to support you [President Akufo-Addo] to succeed. Mr Speaker the President can not be alone. The President will have to fail together with the vice president. Mr President, you have failed with the Vice President.

“Mr Speaker, I conclude by saying that Ghanaians will not miss President Akufo-Addo and Alhaji Bawumia. We know you are going, we can only wish you bye–bye but you will never be missed,” he added.