Mr Speaker, in talking about the totality of how he governs this nation, one thing stands out clearly. One needs to ensure that there is absolute security in this country for one to govern effectively. What do we see? Over the months and throughout the one year of his Administration, there have been areas of inadequacies in security. Criminals have become emboldened and they have attacked the police and civilians.
Armed robbers, in daylight, have shown that they are no longer afraid of what happens to them if they come out to attack. That became a sore point in the Administration. We expected the President to have come out boldly to say this is an area they should have tackled effectively, but failed in that respect. But the President conveniently ignored that area.
All that he mentioned was his determination to curb the Fulani herdsmen activity in Ghana, and to equip the Police; the number of vehicles he would give the Police and the equipment he would give them, so they can tackle crime and ensure that there is safety of the civilian,
Mr Speaker, this is not enough. After one year of administration, we do not expect the President to continue to tell us that he would do this or that. We expected him to have come out to say what they had done, and what was left to be done. He did not show enough commitment to ensure that the security of this nation is taken care of.
Vigilante groups are still all over, threatening Government officials and making it impossible for some admini- strators or Government officials, especially politicians, to be effective in the performance of their jobs. This is not good news for a country handed over to him in peace and with good clearance of security.
Mr Speaker, but the most important aspect that I find very disturbing is about the economy. In economic governance, one would want to see transparency, ensure that there is no corruption in the system, and there is truthfulness about what happens. I wanted him to come to tell us that, for instance, they promised this or that about the economy; they promised to take the economy from one point to the other.
In fact, the singsong about his promises has always been to move the economy away from borrowing to an economy that depends on its domestic resources, but that has not happened; no mention has been made about that. They are still promises; yet, taking a loan forms the basis of our ability to mobilise funding in this country.
Mr Speaker, if we look at all that is mobilised domestically and all that is taken as loans, loans are still the major source of income in this country. This is not good news for us. So, our economic governance has a challenge.
The most critical element which can be seen in every aspect of our lives, is the fact that, after one year, the ease of doing business in this country has dropped 12 points down the line. We left the economy with ease of doing business at 108. After one year, we are 12 points down. We are now at 120.
Mr Speaker, this is not good news at all. In fact, the worst of it is that, there are some key areas that we have dropped. These areas deal with contractors -- we have dropped 14 points below. This means that if we deal with contractors and we would want to make sure that they do the right thing, we are short of effective
administration in that area. Our governance in that area faulted 14 points.
We have dropped four points in the payment of taxes; we have dropped 47 points in the registration of property; we have dropped four points in trading along our borders; we have dropped 11 points in getting credit for our businessmen; and we have dropped four points in our involvement in other activities that would enable businesses to strive. This is not good news at all.
Mr Speaker, this is a Government that touts a lot about private sector involvement as well as; its ability to mobilise funding and create jobs. At the end of it, it is sad that even at the point of entry, where we can find the private sector's ease of doing business, it is at a loss. Again, there is growing unemployment.
Mr Speaker, there is a professor who delivered a lecture at the University of Ghana -- Professor Evans Aggrey-Darko. He found out that in the last one year, there is more unemployment among the youth than ever. He characterised it as a security challenge.
Mr Speaker, if we continue to create a situation where there is more unemploy- ment and less security in the country, one day, we would have a great problem confronting everybody.
So, I would want to suggest that, essentially, it is important for the Government to come out clearly and let us know why we are not able to do the One District, One Factory when they promised every Ghanaian in the last State of the Nation Address that it would take off and that we would see factories in operation. There is not one single factory in operation.
Mr Speaker, why do we not have the One Village, One Dam when in the last one year, they made a promise that there would be a dam for each village? There is not a single dam in existence.
Mr Speaker, the transparency about it is that -- The President should have come here to tell us, in clear terms, that he failed in these areas and that is the true state of the nation.
The true state of the nation is that we are in difficulty. The true state of the nation is that, we failed to reduce prices of fuel and that of imported products, and we are creating a situation where young people are unemployed. We need to put our acts together and ensure that we do well. If the Government does well, everybody becomes happy.
At the moment, the future does not look very bright. We hope and pray that the promises made this time in the State of the Nation Address would be adhered to. At the end of the year, we would not question why the President did not equip the Police with vehicles as he said; why he did not modernise agriculture; and why he could not control the security situation as promised.
Mr Speaker, this is important for us because every investor needs certainty. If one does not have certainty in an environment of investment, one is afraid to invest. I am happy that the investors who earlier came to watch us today are not here as I make my statement, to think that the environment is less friendly now than it was in the last Administration, so that we could have people come in to invest.
Mr Speaker, I would hope that the President would take note of that and create better conditions for us to have investors come into this country to invest.
[HAJIA MAHAMA]Mr Speaker: Thank you very much, Hon Pelpuo.
Hon Minister for Local Government and Rural Development?
