Debates of 16 Mar 2023

Hon
Members, for the item numbered 2, we
do not have any Message from the
President, neither do we have any
Formal Communication from the Rt Hon
Speaker. We would, therefore, turn to the
item numbered 4 in today's Order Paper — Correction of Votes and Proceedings and the Official Report.
Votes and Proceedings and the
Official Report

Hon
Members, we shall begin with the Votes
and Proceedings.

Hon
Members, I have in my hand, the Official
Report of Tuesday, 15th November, 2022.

Mr Speaker, I
have made some observations at
columns 9, 14, 25, 32 and 33. I would
begin with the column numbered 9.
Mr Speaker, in the last but four lines
of paragraph 2, I beg to quote,
“Therefore, I have to manage the time,
Hon Regional Minister”. I am not sure
whether Mr Speaker, wanted to say —

Hon
Member, which column are you quoting
from? You have mentioned so many
columns. Which of them are you quoting
from?

Mr Speaker, the last
but four lines of paragraph 2 on column
9, “Therefore, I have to manage the time,
Hon Regional Minister”.
Mr Speaker, I do not remember if there
was an Hon Regional Minister in the
House, so we would need to look for the
right rendition. Was it “Hon Members”?
Obviously, it could not have been Hon
Regional Minister. So, we would have to
check to get the rendition right.

Hon
Member, I do not know whether I can
share in your view. How are you sure we
did not have any Regional Minister in the
Chamber?

Mr Speaker, it is a bit
strange because just after that you said,
“We have to finish all the 18 Questions
today, so let us manage the time very
well”. Then “Hon Minister for Roads
and Highways...”

.Votes and Proceedings of the Official Report

Mr Speaker, if one looks through the subsequent pages of the Hansard, one would realise that those who came to respond to Questions on that day included the Hon Minister for Employment and Labour Relations. Could we crosscheck to be sure.

Very well.
Hansard Department, please take note
of it.

Mr Speaker, then line 8 of column 14, I beg to quote: “35km road is also under conjugation”. Is it “construction” or “conjugation”? So, I think it should be “construction.”

Very well, that is also noted.
Hansard Department, kindly take note
of that as well.

Mr Speaker, in paragraph 1 of column 25, I beg to quote: “Therefore I would like to plead with the Hon Minister for Roads and Highways to please intervene so that the “contractor” and not “constructor” would get back to site to work.
Mr Speaker, then at column 22, in the
last but two lines of the last paragraph, the name “the Dons Investment Limited” should be “De-Geons Construction Limited” because it is in my Constituency. “De - G - e - o - n - s”, “De-Geons” and this same correction has to be effected at paragraph 2 of column
33 under Dr Nyarko. There is another “Dons” there. It should be “De-Geons”.

Thank
you very much, Prof Nyarko.
Hansard Department, kindly take note
of all the issues the Hon Member has
raised.
Yes, Hon Member for North Tongu?

Mr
Speaker, thank you very much.
Mr Speaker, I would like to make one
additional correction. I observed that in
the Official Report, our Hon Colleague,
Mr Kofi Arko Nokoe's Constituency —

Hon
Member, which column?

Mr Speaker, columns
27 and 28. I noticed that anytime his
Constituency is captured here, it is
hyphenated as “Evalue-Ajomoro- Gwira”. However, when compared to the Votes and Proceedings, it is not. I do not
know if our Hon Colleague is in the
House. We need to reconcile. Which is
more accurate? Is it hyphenated or not,
so that we can reconcile our records,
because in the Votes and Proceedings, it
is not, but in the Official Report, it is. So,
if we can reconcile that.

Hon
Member for Evalue Ajomoro Gwira, the
Hon Member is trying to correct the

.Votes and Proceedings of the Official Report

name of your Constituency, so let us hear

from you.

Mr Speaker, I
would like to thank my Hon Colleague
for that. There is no hyphenation.

Hansard Department, kindly take note of
the corrections.
Yes, Hon Member for Tamale South?

Mr Speaker,
thank you very much.
At the second paragraph of column 19,
“geotechnical” was not hyphenated but in column 20, it was. Whichever is
appropriate should be repeated for
consistency.

Very
well.
Hon Members, in the absence of any
further corrections, the Official Report of
Tuesday, 15th November, 2022, is hereby
adopted as the true record of proceedings
— [Pause].
Leadership, is there any indication as
to whether we are varying the order of
Business?
Mr Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-
Markin: Rightly so, Mr Speaker. It is
our prayer to you for leave to vary the
order of Business. We are so ready and
prepared to continue with the debate to
further explain the positive issues that
were raised by the President when he
addressed us.
Mr Speaker, for this purpose and for
today, the Hon Minister for the Interior,
Mr Ambrose Dery would have his turn to
take a bite. If it so pleases you, he is
ready.
Yes, Hon Member for Tamale South?

Mr Speaker, I
see the Hon Deputy Majority Leader
making an application to vary the order
of Business. For all intents and purposes,
he owes us an explanation. I have a
Question standing in my name to ask the
Hon Minister for Finance how much the
Government owes various pension
schemes including the Social Security
and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).
Mr Speaker, even though the Hon
Minister for Finance was here — understandably, he was here and even
indicated that he was waiting for you to
come in for Business to commence, and
he sought your permission to go to
Cabinet.
Mr Speaker, I would like to add that
we do not just ask these Questions.
Questions are to exercise oversight. This
particular Question on pensions, I am
doing a computation on Ghana's
outstanding total debt, and I need to
understand whether the obligations
Government owes to pensions is to be
added on to our national debt of GH₵576
billion or not. The longer I do not get
answers to these Questions, the more

.Votes and Proceedings of the Official Report

difficult it becomes for me to know what

Ghana's public debt is.

This is the third time we are being told

that we should defer. My Hon

Colleagues, Mr Sayibu Suhuyini

Alhassan and Dr Zanetor Agyeman-

Rawlings, are here. We need certainty as

to when the Hon Minister for Finance

would respond to these Questions. To be

fair to him today, he walked into the

Chamber, he was with us and said that he

has to be in Cabinet, but it does not mean

that we should not have responses

timeously and appropriately to these

Questions.

I thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker,
what the former Hon Minority Leader
just said requires a response. My
response simply is that he is well aware
that the Business of this House is
conducted in a manner that allows us to
deal with urgent matters. We agreed at
Conclave to do the Motion first, after that
then we take the Questions.
The Hon Minister was here, and he
would come back. So, there is no
problem at all. He is ready to answer the
Questions of Hon Members. The
agreement was for us to continue the
debate first, so this is not a one-sided
application. It is an application that is
being made on behalf of all of us.
Mr Speaker, you may proceed with the
debate.

Very well.
The application is well noted and in
place. So, we —

Mr Speaker, we would move to the item numbered 9.

Very well.
Hon Members, let me invite you to
page 6 in today's Order Paper, the item listed 9, Motion to continue thanking the President for appearing before this House and for that matter the entire nation to address us. So, we would continue with the debate, and we would begin from Hon Minister for the Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery.
Hon Member for Nandom, you are a
Minister of State, so you have 15 minutes. The floor is yours.

Hon
Minister for the Interior, you should
begin to descend for landing. Your time
is almost up.

Mr Speaker, on December
21, there was a 4.0 earth tremor on a
Richter scale, and in March 2023, we had
2.0. Considering what happened in
Turkey, we are working to make sure — and all of us would be asked to be part of
the effort that we need to make to prepare
ourselves. We are going to assess how
vulnerable our structures are, and we
need all of us, and the education would
soon come.
Mr Speaker, these are positive steps.
Are we there? We are not yet at the stage
that we should celebrate but there is a lot
of progress and I would like to thank this
House for being supportive.
Mr Speaker, I would like to encourage
this House to approach other aspects
with the civility and the consensus that
we have with security matters so that we
move our country forward.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the
opportunity.

Hon
Minister for the Interior, thank you very
much.
Hon Members, it is now the turn of the
Deputy Minority Leader, Mr Emmanuel
Armah-Kofi Buah. But before I allow
him have the floor, I would like to use
this opportunity to acknowledge the
presence of our students from Yendi
Senior High School and New Pathways

My understanding is that they have been

here since 10.00 a.m. but because of our

attendance at the One Week rite of the

wife of the former Rt Hon Speaker, Prof

Mike Oquaye, we could not start

Proceedings on time. So, Hon students,

we understand that you are here to

observe us and to study. We

acknowledge you. We pray for travelling

mercies for you and we wish that you

have a safe journey back to your

destinations.

Hon Members, I would now invite the

Hon Deputy Minority Leader to take his

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

turn. Hon Member, you have 15 minutes,

so the floor is yours. Let us hear you.

Deputy Minority Leader (Mr

Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah): Mr

Speaker, I would like to add my voice to

welcome our students as you stated.

Mr Speaker, I thank you for the

opportunity to contribute to the Motion

to thank His Excellency the President on

his Message on the State of the Nation as

enshrined in article 67 of the 1992

Constitution of Ghana.

Mr Speaker, the President began by

stating what was obviously on the minds

of Ghanaians, and I beg to quote:

Mr. Speaker, I believe that the issue,

above all, that is, quite properly,

dominating the concerns of all

Ghanaians is the gravity of the

economic situation of our country,

and how we can quickly stabilise the

economy, and work our way back to

the period of rapid economic growth.

Mr Speaker, I was very curious about

this statement because the last time the

President stated that he was concerned

and understood the things that Ghanaians

were going through, he did something

shocking. So, in fact, I went back to see

what he said the previous year. The

previous year, this is what the President

stated, and I beg to quote:

The Ghanaian people are anxious

about the economy, the cost of living,

income levels, jobs for young people,

and even about issues on which we all

thought we had achieved a national

consensus.

Mr Speaker, it is not surprising that

worries about the stability of the

Government would become the cause of

heightened tension in the nation. Two

years in a row, the President said he feels

our pain, and he can understand our pain.

Last year when the President said that,

the next thing he did was to introduce

some new taxes that quite frankly made

the lives of Ghanaians even more

difficult.

Mr Speaker, the President introduced

the Inward Remittance Tax, the Bank

Transfer Taxes, the e-Levy as we all

remember, and reintroduced Benchmark

Values that really disrupted businesses

and made life very difficult. This time,

after the President said that he cared

about the students, he has lined up an

array of taxes that the Hon Minister for

Finance intends to bring to this House for

us to even make life more difficult for the

people of Ghana.

Mr Speaker, so, one would ask if the

President really cares about what

Ghanaians are going through. I would

like us to be very clear where we are.

Ghanaians are in despair because our

economy is in its worst shape in decades.

Currently, we are unable to pay our debts

and have officially defaulted in the

payment of our external debts since

January 2023. We do not need anyone to

tell us that the economy is in a bad shape.

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Ghana is described by the international

community as a debt-distress country.

Our economy has been downgraded by

various financial rating agencies like

Moody's and Fitch. As we speak, and as

we know, the Hon Minister for Finance

is negotiating with the IMF on a debt

exchange programme which is a very

controversial one that really affects the

lives of everybody.

Mr Speaker, this is what all the

economy experts agree on. The total debt

the NDC left for this Government was

US$120 billion. It has moved to almost

US$600 billion. Our debt to GDP ratio is

over 95 per cent. Our daily rise of cost of

living is unbearable, and the list goes on.

Mr Speaker, one would ask about the

exact policy measures and steps this

Government has taken to make sure that

the people of Ghana feel that they care

and understand the times we are in. Has

the Government taken any steps to

reduce its bloated size? No! We just had

an announcement that the Government

has appointed new Hon Ministers,

including my Good Friends, very nice

gentlemen, who frankly, deserve to be

Ministers. However, it is rather

unfortunate that they are here at the

Mr Speaker, there was something

striking about the President's Message on the State of the Nation. He was silent

about the state of our upstream

petroleum sector. He never said one

word on it. One would ask, why? This is

because the President has been a

monumental failure when it comes to the

upstream sector.

Mr Speaker, nobody should forget that

this is a Government that was

bequeathed three active producing oil

fields: Tweneboa Enyenra Ntomme

(TEN), Jubilee, and Offshore Cape

Three Point (OCTP) Sankofa. All the oil

that is being produced was supervised by

the NDC administration. It was started

by the late former President, Prof J. E. A.

Mills, and continued and consolidated by

the former President, Mr John Dramani

Mahama.

Mr Speaker, they did not stop there;

they took Ghana to the gas era. The

challenge we have had as a country has

always been how to get enough money to

import expensive crude oil. Finally, Mr

Speaker, the visionary leadership,

initially led by President Mills, who

started the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant,

which was continued and completed by

President Mahama. President Mahama

also continued with the largest non-

associated guard in the history of Africa

— the OCTP project. Mr Speaker, because of that, we cut our import of

crude oil by half.

Mr Speaker, when I listened to the

Message on the State of the Nation, on

page 20, there was something interesting

that the President stated:

Mr Speaker, we are now at the most

difficult stage of electricity provision

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

around the country. The parts that are

left are the very difficult to access

areas.

Then afterwards, he talked about the

national electricity access rate. Mr

Speaker, there is nothing difficult about

it. The NDC administration left this

Government an access rate of over 85 per

cent, and we were close to getting

universal access to electricity. All that

this Government had to do was to add

another five per cent to get us to the 90

per cent for us to get access to electricity.

We are in the seventh year of the Nana

Addo government, and we are still

struggling to move from 85 to 90 per

cent. Now, the President says it is a very

difficult task.

Mr Speaker, let this House remember

that after we had done all the work in the

upstream sector and brought generation

capacity of over 1000MW, we now

decided to do something at the value

chain where it matters, making sure that

the Electricity Company of Ghana

(ECG) is infused with resources to pay

for the electricity that is supplied. So, we

negotiated and got US$500 million. Let

nobody forget what happened to that

US$500 million. This same

Government, led by President Nana

Akufo-Addo, corruptly brought in Power

Distribution Services (PDS), and to cut a

long story short, the Americans got

angry and took their US$2 billion away.

The reason we got stuck and were unable

to complete the reform in the

downstream electricity sector was

because we never finished it. This is how

it was botched by the Nana Addo

Administration.

Mr Speaker, nobody should forget the

PDS. Today, the President is speaking

about how we can basically get access to

electricity.

Mr Speaker, it even gets worse with

renewable energy. We have not moved

anywhere. In fact, the only thing we have

been able to do for seven years is to put

solar lights at the Flagstaff House.

Mr Speaker, this is important because

we brought the Renewable Energy Bill

and said that by the year 2020, we should

have at least 10 per cent of our energy

mix coming from renewable energy

sources, but we did not meet it. Do you

know what this Government did? They

just moved the goalpost and said, “Well,

we cannot achieve it, so we would push

If anybody wants to see how serious we

are, he or she should check our annual

budget and see how much the

Government of Ghana spends on

renewable energy. Everything about

renewable energy is being done by our

development partners. We must put our

money where our mouth is.

Mr Speaker, there is something

interesting that has to be said. Now, the

Government has come up with a scheme

- Gold For Oil. They always come up

with something, and every morning they

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

would say and repeat it until everybody

believes it is the truth.

Mr Speaker, the only gold we have in

Ghana is the one we get from the small-

scale miners and the galamseyers that the

Bank of Ghana buys from. Nobody can

tell me that we have gotten some

additional gold. It is only the gold that

we have. Mr Speaker, there is nowhere

in this world where we do barter trade for

oil. If there is, then somebody should tell

me. There is nowhere in this world where

one takes gold and exchanges it for

gallons of oil. So, there is nothing like

“Gold For Oil”. The Government goes to sell the gold in dollars —

Mr Speaker, when we are discussing

this matter, we must be very serious. I

heard the Vice President say that

petroleum prices have gone down

because of the Gold For Oil Programme.

Excuse my language, he is the Vice

President, and because he wants to be

president, I would be charitable, but

frankly, the advisors should advise him

not to make such statements.

Mr Speaker, the reason petrol prices

have gone down is that crude price,

which was over US$100, has come down

We can check it. It has nothing to do with

Dr Bawumia. [Some Hon Members:

Oh!] It has nothing to do with the Gold

for Oil Policy.

Mr Speaker, what we must be careful

about is this, and people should listen to

this: this is a scheme that, if we are not

careful, would create a huge debt for the

country.

Mr Speaker, there are two players in

this game: there are two government

importer institutions — the Bank of

Ghana, who is in charge of getting the

dollars — Dollars have always been a

challenge for people who import crude

oil. So, the Bank of Ghana says that from

now on, anybody who wants to import

should come to them for the dollars as

they would ringfence the dollars. So, the

Bank of Ghana now decides that it would

assemble the bulk oil distributors and

give them good exchange rates. What is

happening is that the Bank of Ghana is

not only giving them dollars for them to

pay for it, but it is now becoming the

bank to finance the importation of these

petroleum products, thereby exposing

them to risk. All the institutions that have

guaranteed crude oil to this country,

whether Ghana National Petroleum

Corporation (GNPC), have created a

huge debt. Now, the Bank of Ghana is

guaranteeing — [Interruption] — Hon Member, so, you tell me. Are you saying

that BOST is the one — [An Hon

Member: Do not talk to him.] Where did

BOST get the money to import the crude

oil?

Order!
Order!
Hon Members, the rules still stand.

Mr Speaker, it is a very
serious matter. As I speak, I have a letter

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

from BOST. We cannot use government

institutions to basically kick private

companies out of business.

Mr Speaker, now, the Bank of Ghana

decides — [Some Hon Members: Open the letter.] Please! Have I quoted from

Mr Speaker, now, the Bank of Ghana

decides the exchange rates and decides

whom to either give or not give forex to.

What is worse, before one can import

petroleum products, a company would

have to be given what is called laycan by

the NPA. Now, the Government is also

using the scheme to make sure that they

can basically bully the private importers

and force them — [Interruption] — They would not give you laycan.

However, BOST would bring the

product.

Mr Speaker, as of last week, BOST

would bring the product and companies

are then forced to go and buy from

BOST.

Mr Speaker, when a company brings a

product, they would not allow them to

offload it because BOST cargo is there.

Mr Speaker, are we using state

institutions to basically collapse private

businesses? It is shocking and unthin-

kable, and it must be investigated. This

so-called Gold for Oil Programme would

expose the Bank of Ghana to huge debt.

The NPA is also basically using its

regulatory power to —

Hon
Deputy Minority Leader, your time is
almost up, so you should wind up.
`

Mr Speaker, my time is not
yet up. I have spoken for 10 minutes, so

Who
gave you 30 minutes?

Mr Speaker, all right.
This is a very serious matter which
must be investigated. This is because this
so-called Gold For Oil Programme is
neither here nor there. We are simply
exposing government institutions. The
Bank of Ghana and the NPA —

Hon
Deputy Minority Leader, thank you very
much.

Mr Speaker, I am not done
at all.

Hon
Deputy Minority Leader, look at your
time. It is before you; look at it.

Mr Speaker, kindly give
me three more minutes for me to
conclude.

Hon
Deputy Minority Leader, you gave me
the time allocations. You have 15

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

minutes, and you have already exhausted

it.

Mr Speaker, the scorecard
of this President and this Government is
not even on the form; from A to D is

Hon
Deputy Minority Leader, thank you.
Hon Members, as is said, I did not
allocate the time. The time allocation
was done by the Leaders themselves. I
am just implementing what they have
given me. So, it is not a question whether
an Hon Member is getting more or less
time allocation. It is based on the
directives: the Leadership have their
time; Chairpersons, Ranking Members
of Committees and Hon Ministers have
their time; and other Hon Members also
have their time. So, allow me to go by the
time allocation. I am not cheating based
on the face of any Hon Member.
Hon Members, I would now come to
the Hon Member for Nhyiaeso, Dr
Stephen Amoah.
Ms Alhassan — rose —

Hon
First Deputy Majority Whip, do you
have something to say?

Mr Speaker, yes. I
thank you for the opportunity. We
engaged and decided that we would not
interject Hon Members when they are on
the Floor. What we did not agree on was
to ask Hon Members to peddle
falsehood. We should not allow that to
happen.
Mr Speaker, also, we are to renovate
and think outside the box. Is the Hon
Deputy Minority Leader, who is a former
Hon Minister for Energy, trying to tell
the House that this Government or any
government cannot think outside the box
to bring innovations that would help us?
[Interruption] What is he talking about?

Hon
First Deputy Majority Whip, thank you
very much. We knew that Hon Members
may spew falsehood. So, what we said
was that if, according to you, an Hon
Member is not speaking the truth, just jot
it down and address it when you get the
opportunity to do so. It is for our own
good; it is for our listeners and
Ghanaians to also hear what is going on.
So, if the Hon Deputy Minority Leader
said something that is not truthful, kindly
jot it down; you would get the
opportunity to address it. If you are not
going to speak, give the notes to your
Hon Colleague who would speak.
Hon Members, that was the agreement
and the way we decided to go with the
debate. I am just implementing what the
Leadership gave me, so kindly allow me
to do that.

Mr Speaker, on
what my Hon Colleague just said, for the
record, the Hon Deputy Minority Leader
said that he has a letter from BOST, and

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

he was holding it in a brown envelop. If

the Hansard Department would capture

that, then he should let us see the letter,

else it should be expunged from the

Hansard. The Hon Deputy Minority

Leader said that he has a letter from

BOST, and I think that it has been

captured. So, if he is actually not

showing us any letter from BOST, then

the Hansard Department should not

capture that part of the debate. This is

because there is no letter to show; it is

only a brown envelope that he has

shown, but there is no letter that indicates

that the brown envelop contains

something from BOST. That is what we

are saying.

Mr
Speaker, yesterday, I commended you
for managing the House very diligently.
I can see that you are doing the same this
afternoon. My very Good Friend, the
Hon Second Deputy Majority Whip, who
spoke now was not even at the conclave.
So, he is breaking the rules we created
for ourselves at the conclave.
Mr Speaker, he said that the Hon
Deputy Minority Leader said he got a
letter from BOST. Did he hear him read
any letter? He never made reference to
any letter.
Mr Speaker, I encourage you, as you
have called our Hon Colleague, the Hon
Member for Nhyiaeso, to go ahead
because there is nothing for the Hon
Deputy Minority Leader to withdraw; he
never quoted from any document. So,
kindly let us make progress.
Mr Hammond — rose —

Hon
Member for Adansi Asokwa, what is it?

Mr
Speaker, I realise that the Hon Minority
Chief Whip is commending you for
controlling the House properly and all of
that, but that is a different thing
altogether. I am not sure when the
Speaker was commended for doing what
he is supposed to do.
Mr Speaker, I accept that the rule is that
you would not accept any interjections.
However, I think that it should be slightly
relaxed when it comes to profoundness:
when certain statements are made on the
Floor which would be a potential to court
considerable difficulty to the individuals
associated with it.
Mr Speaker, with all respect to the
Hon Deputy Minority Leader, quite
literally, half of what he stated is
completely inaccurate and a complete
distortion. However, I have spoken
already and would not be able to respond
to it, so you would not call me on a point
of order. If you would allow me, I would
just rise on a point of order because
almost all that he has said are completely
untrue, to be charitable to him. It is not
the fact that the Bank of Ghana is being
compelled to differentiate or distinguish
who to give the money to; it is not the
case of the Bulk Distribution Companies

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

(BDCs) being controlled or teleguided

from somewhere by some Government

officials to do what they are not doing.

Mr Speaker, what the Hon Members

of the Minority cannot stand is that this

Gold for Oil Programme is drastically

solving the oil problem in Ghana. They

cannot handle that. As we speak, this

morning, prices of petroleum products

have reduced and the prognosis is that it

would reduce further. However, the Hon

Members of the Minority do not seem to

be able to comprehend how exactly this

thing is being done. So, the Hon Deputy

Minority Leader gets up on the Floor,

picks out an envelope, and tells us about

a document in it. It is not true. We would

teach them what the magic is.

Mr Speaker, we have abundance of

gold in the country. Somehow —

Hon
Member for Adansi Asokwa, I think —

Mr Speaker, I have
not finished.

Hon
Member, no, I have got the —
Thank you; it is all right.
Hon Member for Adansi Asokwa, if
you know that what the Hon Deputy
Minority Leader has said is not truthful,
please, jot it down. The Hon Member for
Nhyiaeso is about to speak. You could
just give the information to him, so that
he addresses it. Let us get that right.
Hon Member for Nhyiaeso, you have
10 minutes. The floor is yours now.
Hon Members, I did not say “Hon Minister”; I said, “Hon Member for Nhyiaeso, you have 10 minutes.”
Hon Member for Nhyiaeso, you would
soon become an Hon Minister, so do not

Mr Speaker, I thank you very
much for the opportunity. I would like
my Hon Friends who are raising issues
about whether I am an Hon Minister or
not to understand one thing from the
Bible: that God knew me before I was
born. He had plans and purposes
concerning my life, and they shall come

Mr Speaker, actually, it has taken me

extempore to speak. However, it is such

an important issue that we as a House,

considering our strategic position in this

country and the role we play in our socio-

economic stratification, I would have to

make sure that I contribute immensely

towards what we are doing today

concerning the Message on the State of

the Nation by His Excellency Nana Addo

Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Mr Speaker, my Hon Senior Colleague

from the other Side and a Leader whom

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

I respect so much, in his preamble, made

emphatic statements that the President of

this Republic started his Statement by

talking about the gravity of the economic

situation, and in extension, talked about

instability, difficulty, unemployment,

and even how the global communities

actually define Ghana as a distressed

economy, and that at the same time, the

President's tenure has been introducing a lot of taxes.

Mr Speaker, when I hear these things,

I get a bit astonished. I find myself in a

situation that I find it difficult to speak

because I do not know where to start

from. Do we really understand the

management or the calibration of tax

policies in any developing jurisdiction?

Do we really understand that? In fact,

between 2014 and 2016, my Hon

Brothers from the other Side, in their

own Budget Statements, increased or

introduced about 26 tax components

together. The most painful thing is that

after introducing all these tax com-

ponents and increasing them, the most

essential services that actually form the

basis of the establishment of any

sustainable economic platform which are

education and health, they cancelled

teachers and nurses' allowances. Did they really understand how a country

should be managed in terms of tax

introduction or increment?

Mr Speaker, putting that aside, they

talked about debt to GDP being 95.5 per

cent. Yes, it is true. If the NDC had been

in government, it would have been 400

per cent. Do they know why? In the year

2000, there was no COVID-19 pande-

mic, Russia-Ukraine war, global crisis

nor a situation where Ghanaians were

asked to stay home but got paid. Debt to

GDP at that time was almost 150 per

cent. They can go and check. We had a

situation where we had impaired

productivity; the private sector sacked

about 40,000 people and we had

shortfalls of revenue amounting to

almost 12 billion. We were home and not

working, and we know the major sources

of government financing arms were

either borrowing that is debt financing or

generating revenue domestically.

However, because we had impaired

productivity, we could not generate

revenue domestically and when the

Government decided to come out with

the best policy to make sure that we

consolidate our fiscal space by coming

out with new revenue generating

policies, they used the numbers they had

to impair those good policies and look at

where we are today. They go to the other

side of the river, make it dirty and come

to the other side and ask. All that I am

saying is that we need to revolutionise

our minds. It does not matter if one is

NPP or NDC; Kwaku or Ama. The most

important factor we need to consider as a

House is to stop all these recycling that

when NDC is in power, NPP would do

everything to bring them down and vice

versa. We need to stop; it is time we

stopped these things. We need to think

about the poor child as well as the

Ghanaian who cannot even make ends

meet and decide today the needed

policies that would change this country.

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Mr Speaker, we cannot continue doing

these things to ourselves. When the

President was speaking, he demonstrated

humility. He accepted the fact that we

had difficulties but he had appealed in

his Statement that the fact that the same

—

Hon
Members, give me your attention. Please
he has the Floor, allow him. If you do not
understand anything, jot it down and you
would get the opportunity to address it.
Hon Member, you may continue.

Thank you so much Mr
Speaker. It was so interesting that my
Hon Senior Colleague said that the
international body defines Ghana as a
distress economy. Yes, but the same
international body, in the last statement I
heard, said Ghana, under His Excellency
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was
doing so well until the COVID-19
pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. It
is a public statement without any
ambiguity and debate.
Mr Speaker, the President accepted
that fact and demonstrated empathy.
However, one thing that he did that I was
so happy about was that he attempted to
answer almost all the questions and
controversial issues in this country and I
would show you something here. They
asked what he had used our money for. I
cannot talk about all but just to mention
roads. Between the year 2009 and 2016,
roads worked on by the Ghana Highway
Authority under the NDC government
was 551km. Under Nana Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo's ay3bi afo, 1505km roads have been worked on. In fact, when it
comes to the Department of Feeder
Roads, they had done 1613km; so far, we
have done 7112km. When it comes to
Department of Urban Roads, they had
done 2442km; we have done 3357km. If
you put all together, they have done
4636km; we have done 11974km. How
can they compare the two? Even when
we were going through this unpre-
cedented crisis, the leadership of His
Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-
Addo, with the rationing budget that we
had, we have been able to come out with
all these.
Mr Speaker, in my Constituency, they
can go and check, under His Excellency
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 2200
school children have tables and chairs to
sit on. Actually, we have been able to
provide computers to all the secondary
schools there. We have been able to buy
risograph machine for mass printing of
questions for students. We have a lot that
has happened under His Excellency
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Between Nsawam and Apedwa, I use 24
minutes, but I used to use almost 50
minutes. People must open their eyes and
speak the truth based on the Bible and the
Quran. There is hardship, yes, but what
actually necessitated the hardship? When
we were in dumsor for about four years,
and public service had to put a ban that
nurses and teachers stayed home for four
years—It was only in 2015 that they smuggled a few in because of election. In
terms of productivity and growth, had it
not been COVID-19, what would have

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

been the situation? We were growing 7

per cent averagely annually for three

years. In fact, for 40 years— deficit was 5 per cent for three years and this has

never occurred in our history. Lending

rate was almost 40 per cent, it came

down to about 20 per cent. Policy rate

was about 25.5 per cent, it came down to

about 12 per cent.

Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson — rose—

Mr Speaker, the fact of
the matter is that between the two, one is
better, and that is what the President
demonstrated. The President showed that
in terms of political lead in this country,
we are either Kotoko or Accra Hearts of
Oak. The NDC are third division. I do
not want to mention a name else I would
be in trouble. All I am saying is that the
President of today understands the fact
that there is hardship; empathises with
Ghanaians; has demonstrated what the
money has been used for; put in their
minds and the minds of Ghanaians hope
and confidence and said that we are
moving forward and that there is light at
the end of the tunnel. All we are saying
is that they are social democrats. Their
major economic policy is the adoption of
contractional fiscal policy so that they
can take taxes and roll out free things.
Which of the redistribution or pro-poor
policies of national tenacity and
character have the NDC been able to
implement? None of them. The major
policy they talk about is Okada. How
many of us here have become Hon
Ministers or Hon Members of Parliament
(MP) because of Okada? One thing is
that, if this thing had happened under the
NDC, Mr Speaker, let me tell you the
figures that would have happened. GDP
would have been 0.1 per cent.

Hon
Member, your time is up.

Mr Speaker, lending rate
would have been 95.3 per cent, growth to
GDP would have been 400 per cent and
we would have been back to Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC).
Mr Speaker, it does not matter the
intimidation and the obstacles they want
to put in our way. We are focused on how
we could restore the good works that
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's Government is doing. We would not
want to focus on the impediments and
the obstacles. Mr Speaker, I can assure
us that the President, with the Ministers,
confidence, hope, and knowledge that he
has, this country, at the end of the day,
would go back for its normal clothes.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.

Thank
you so much, Hon Member for
Nhyiaeso.
Leadership, please, let me reiterate
this. It would be unfair for a Leader to
rise up and I would refuse to call him.
Please, the rules still stand, so if someone
is debating and you rise up, the tendency

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

that I may not call you is high, so please,

Leadership, this is for your attention.

Hon Members, we now come to the

Hon Member for Adaklu, Mr Kwame

Governs Agbodza.

Minority Chief Whip (Mr Kwame

Governs Agbodza): Mr Speaker, thank

you for the opportunity to make few

comments on the Message on the State of

the Nation, 2023.

Mr Speaker, I would focus my

comments solely on the roads sector. In

the year 2022, His Excellency the

President came here and said empha-

tically that he has built 10,800 kilometres

of new roads. Mr Speaker, you and I

know that statement was totally false. In

fact, the truth is that he built 68

kilometres of new roads in that year; that

is settled. He came here this year and

said that he has built 11,000 kilometres

of roads, but he did not qualify it. In fact,

in the year 2022, he said that his record

is unmatched since independence and

this year, he said his record is unmatched

since the Fourth Republic. The President

is even unsure about the benchmark of

his record.

Mr Speaker, I want to do some fact

checking about what the Hon Member

said. The document the President laid or

spoke about is not factual. I repeat, the

President did not construct over 11,000

kilometres of road as he said. The record

of the NDC in the year 2016 is still

unmatched by the NPP. The 2017

Budget Statement, as read by the Hon

Minister for Finance, paragraph 505, I

would like to read to us what the NPP

Government reported as what they

inherited in the year 2016 and it says;

The Ministry maintained its focus on

periodic maintenance activities and

within the period, carried out the

following activities. In 2016, routine

maintenance activities were carried

out on: (1) 10,723 kilometres of trunk

roads.

Mr Speaker, if we take the Budget

Statement of 2023 which was read by the

same Hon Minister for Finance, he read

the Budget Statement for 2017 and

talked about the 2016 outcome. In the

year 2023, the same Hon Minister for

Finance said that routine maintenance

works were carried out on 5,303

kilometres of trunk roads. In the year

2016, trunk roads that were worked on

were 10,723 kilometres; in 2022, that

figure is only 5500 kilometres. I hope

they are listening. So, in the year 2016, it

was 10,000 kilometres and in 2022, it

was 5,000 kilometres.

Mr Speaker, when it comes to feeder

roads, the NDC worked on 16,183

kilometres of feeder roads and the NPP,

1,811 kilometres. While the NDC

worked on 16,000 kilometres of roads in

the year 2016, they are talking about

1,800 kilometres which is an appalling

record. Then the Hon Minister for Roads

and Highways was here beating his chest

that his record is unmatched. Let me tell

them what we talked about in terms of

other roads. When it comes to the urban

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

roads, we worked on 9,389 kilometres of

roads, but under the NPP, it is 3,223

kilometres of roads, so where from the

11,000 kilometres of roads that the

President talked about? They wish they

could have a better word to describe

what the President did, but it is totally

false.

Mr Speaker, let us go on and see this

record. The President talked about other

things and the Hon Minister for Roads

and Highways, for the first time in the

history of our country — When you are the Hon Minister for Roads and

Highways, and you need to buy a page in

the newspaper to make a publication of

what you have actually done, then there

is a problem.

Mr Speaker, I would like to read this

out. The NPP said they have done a

certain number of interchanges, but this

is not difficult to check. Mr Speaker, you

and I know who did the Kwame Nkrumah

Interchange. President Mahama did the

Kwame Nkrumah Interchange. In fact, it

is not only one interchange, but there are

two inter-changes within the same

stretch and the Ring Road Flyover is the

second one; then we come to the Kasoa

Interchange, Giffard Road, Airport Hills,

and the Pokuase Interchanges.

Mr Speaker, let me explain this and I

encourage my Hon Colleagues — Do they know how ridiculous they look

when they tell people that they actually

built the Pokuase Interchange, when

they and I were here when the Hon

Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson,

brought that finance agreement to this

House? I was in this House when he

signed the agreement. Interestingly, the

current Chief Director of the Ministry,

Dr Abass, was the head of the

Department of Urban Roads at that time.

When we approved it, I was here and he

said that now that they have approved the

AFDB loan, the final design and

procurement were going to be concluded

for the project to take off in the year

2017, so it is just a giving that in the year

2017, the project would start. I hear

things about the fact that we were going

to do 3-tier and they did 4-tier. Mr

Speaker, the change between 3-tier and

4-tier was a pure engineering solution.

Nobody called President Akufo-Addo

and asked him to do either a 3-tier or 4-

tier. That is why it was done within the

same amount of money.

Mr Speaker, the record of the NPP is

actually that if our Hon Colleague, the

Minister for Roads and Highways, who

is very diligent to Parliament, read the

Answers he has been giving to Hon

Members of Parliament, he would have

been sombre, because almost all the

Answers he gives show that our road

projects have been suspended because

they failed to pay the contractors.

Nobody's road project is ongoing, so which road is he talking about that they

have built to be beating his chest?

Indeed, I give this example all the time.

President Kufuor started the N1

Motorway, but the actual construction

was completed under the NDC. A very

honest President, Mr Evans Atta-Mills;

may his soul rest in peace, on the day of

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

the commissioning, called President

John Kufuor that because he started the

project, he should come and commission

the project together with him; that is

honesty. When it comes to the Bui Dam,

it was there before the Fourth Republic

and Dr Kwame Nkrumah started it,

President Rawlings attempted reviving

the feasibility but he could not; President

Kufuor came, found money and actually

started Bui Dam. The actual construction

was done largely under the NDC. In fact,

the NDC borrowed another US$162

million dollars to complete it. Have they

ever heard any NDC person taking credit

for the Bui Dam before? No, we do not.

How come they cannot be honest for one

time? They have not done much and this

is the record. As a matter of fact, the new

road, as shown in the document the

President showed, had moved from 68

kilometres to a paltry 615 per kilometres

only. That is the new roads they have

done, but he was here and as the Deputy

Minister, he should have told the

President that what he was saying was

not true. He could have advised him.

Mr Speaker, the records we are talking

about are all littered in the Budget

Statement and let me tell Hon Members

this that between the years 2017 and

2022, they have done only 6,453

kilometres of roads, but in the Message

on the State of the Nation, 2023, they

said they have done 11,979 kilometres.

Their data does not add up. It does not

exist. And let me tell them where our

data is from. If they take the Budget

Statement from 2009 to 2016, they

would see 16,508 kilometres of roads

done and if they take that of 2017 to

2022, they would see 6,453 kilometres of

roads done. Why is the Hon Deputy

Minister embarrassing the President all

the time? Does he know what that book

he is carrying is?

That book is a book of lies; there is

nothing factual about that book and I can

give him details which are all here. He

should just check their own Budget

Statements.

Mr Speaker, the most difficult thing,

today, is that, as we speak, indeed, the

New Patriotic Party (NPP) has awarded

a lot of road projects, including road

projects in Adaklu, but majority of road

contractors are not on site because the

Government has not been able to pay

them. The Government owes them more

than GH₵10 billion. As we speak, the volume of work within the Ministry of

Roads and Highways and Ghana Cocoa

Board (COCOBOD) is over GH₵50 billion.

Mr Speaker, think about it. The whole

Appropriation Bill in 2016 was just

about GH₵50 billion; the volumes of debt the Government is holding in the

road sector alone is equal to the entire

Appropriation Bill in 2016; no wonder

we accounted for GH₵120 billion debt and the NPP has got GH₵600 billion, but they have nothing to show for it. The

only interchange, currently, that can be

attributed to the NPP is the Tamale

Interchange; it can be given to them.

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

They have actually no record of any

interchange started and completed.

Indeed — [Interruption] — Yes, if the Obetsebi Lamptey Phase 2 is completed,

I am happy for them to take credit for it,

but the contractor has laid off everybody

on site. The project is in abeyance, so

they cannot even complete that. Can you

hear them say “and so”? So, their record is that mo ayɛ interchange baako pɛ. That is what you have; that book is a book of

lies, and I would encourage you to stop

embarrassing the President by giving

him false information.

there is something going on in this
country that we must watch. The Hon
Minister for Finance consistently comes
to this House to encourage us to give him
money through the Road Fund, and when
we give him the money, he decides to
take the money and do anything he likes.
So, for instance, he takes the money and
uses some to pay for the National
Cathedral. If one checks the Appendix
3B of the 2020 Budget Statement, we
would collect about GH₵2.4 billion from the Road Fund. He will spend only
GH₵1 billion on roads. Why would the Hon Minister do that? If he takes money
for road, let him expend that money on
road-related expenditure. That is why we
said that the Road Fund Act must come
to this House to be amended, so that all
the expenditure goes to roads.
Mr Speaker, on record, since 2017,
this Government has taken over GH₵4 billion out of the Road Fund and used it
on non-relevant things, including the
National Cathedral. Meanwhile, I know
a 77-year-old lady who is suffering from
kidney problem. She needed her
GH₵15,000 out of the road-side weeding; this Government is unable to pay the
lady, but the Hon Minister for Roads and
Highways stands here to say that
anybody who does not understand him is
ignorant. I encourage the Hon Minister
for Roads and Highways to read his own
Government's Budget Statement. He would have been edified in terms of his
data.
Mr Speaker, let me put it on record
that President Akufo-Addo's record is probably the most appalling in terms of
roads. The records we have, and I quote
paragraph 505 of the 2017 Budget
Statement as a reference point as against
paragraph 700 of the 2023 Budget
Statement. One would see clearly that
President Akufo-Addo's records on road maintenance works is the worst in the
history of the Fourth Republic. That is
his record; I wish my Hon Senior
Colleague, the affable Hon Minister for
Roads and Highways, were here. Let him
know that if he is an Hon Minister for
Roads and Highways and he has to call
for a bi-partisan committee to inves-
tigate roads that are physical for anybody
to see, it means he has not done any work
because if he had fixed the road, we
would have seen the roads and driven on
them.
Mr Speaker, with these few words, the
road sector is in a very terrible state. Let
me find out from the Hon Second Deputy
Majority Whip what the nature of the

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

road is in his neighbourhood. Hon

Deputy Minister for Roads and High-

ways, what is the nature of roads in your

neighbourhood? Our very respected Hon

Leader of the House — Mr Speaker, do you know what is going on? When the

Government came here and said they

were constructing an interchange for

him, do you know that the contractor has

not turned up on site at Suame? That is

why the Hon Leader is always

concerned. I was so sad when some

people attempted attacking him. If that

interchange is not done, we cannot vouch

for the safety of our Hon Leader.

Mr Speaker, I would encourage the

Hon Minister for Roads and Highways to

find the money to construct the Suame

Interchange. It is very critical for

Kumasi. So if the Government cannot

honour its promise to anybody, as

Government, can it not even honour its

promise to the Hon Leader of Govern-

ment Business?

Mr Speaker, with these few words, I

would encourage President Akufo-Addo

that whenever he gets a document from

the Hon Minister for Roads and

Highways, he should crosscheck because

they are misleading him too much. I have

just told the House the records — Hon Leader, check the records on paragraph

505 of the 2017 Budget Statement and

paragraph 700 of the 2023 Budget

Statement. You would be sad for

yourself. The difference is so huge.

When the National Democratic Congress

(NDC) is doing 10,000 kilometres (km)

of road, the NPP is doing 5,000km.

When NDC did 16,000km the NPP did

7,000km. When the NDC did 9,000km,

the NPP did 3,000km. What an appalling

record of performance! I said when it

comes to road maintenance, the bench in

2016, you cannot match it.

Hon
Minority Chief Whip, your time is
getting up.

Mr Speaker, the Hon
Minister for Roads and Highways does
not need to publish statements in the
newspapers to be able to check whether
he has done well. He has not built
11,000km of road. The Government's score card is less than “F” when it comes to roads.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the
opportunity.

Let me
now come to the Hon Deputy Minister
for Energy and Member for Sekondi, Mr
Andrew Egyapa Mercer.
Hon Deputy Minister, you have 10
minutes. The floor is yours now.
Deputy Minister for Energy (Mr
Andrew Kofi Egyapa Mercer) (MP):
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the
opportunity to contribute to the Message
on the State of the Nation that was
delivered by His Excellency the
President to this august House.
Mr Speaker, clearly, if one focuses on
what it is that His Excellency the President

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

said in respect to the energy sector,

where he outlined the clear and

innovative policies that the Government

had rolled out in the past year to do deal

with issues that affect the sector, the

increases that have been made in the

electricity coverage of Ghana, and

particularly, the Gold for Oil (G4O)

Policy that had been initiated to deal with

shortages of forex and to alleviate the

increases in petroleum prices that

Ghanaians were faced with in the past

few months, it tells one that, clearly, the

Government has achieved a lot in the

energy sector.

Mr Speaker, it is surprising to hear

when my Hon Friends on the other Side

— I am privy to the comments that the

Hon Deputy Minority Leader made

during his contribution to the debate on

the Message on the State of the Nation,

where he alleged that the Akufo-Addo

Government has not added even a single

drop of oil to our reserves since we came

into government.

Mr Speaker, indeed, our Hon Friends

on the other Side consistently seek to

throw dust into the eyes of the Ghanaian

by suggesting that the three oil fields that

Ghana has been producing were as a

result of work that the NDC Government

did. That is not completely untrue.

Indeed, and in fact, during the tenure of

the NDC between 2009 and 2016, all the

agreements that were signed for

exploration upstream have not yielded a

drop of oil, not one drop.

In fact, the Jubilee Field, which is the

primus inter pares amongst the oil fields

that are producing oil in Ghana, was

executed under the presidency of H.E.

John Agyekum Kufuor. The Sankofa

Field was executed under the presidency

of H.E. John Agyekum Kufuor. Indeed,

Mr Speaker, the petroleum agreement of

the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN)

fields as well, that are also producing oil,

was executed under the presidency of H.

E. John Agyekum Kufuor.

Mr Speaker, indeed, oil exploration is

an extremely expensive enterprise,

which invariably takes a lot time for the

actual oil to be produced from the time

that the petroleum agreement is signed to

production, and if we look at all the

agreements that I made reference to,

which were signed during former

President Kufuor's era, it took time for the actual exploration activities to be

carried out for the first oil to be

produced.

Mr Speaker, we would recall that it

was in this august House that when

Ghana discovered oil in commercial

quantities, our Hon Friends on the other

Side described it as adwe ngo. It was

right here in this Chamber. The Hon

Minority Leader cannot point to one

agreement that was signed between the

era of the NDC that has actually

produced any oil or added any drop of oil

to the reserves of this country.

On the contrary, Mr Speaker, during

the presidency of H. E. Nana Addo

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghana has seen

unprecedented well drilling success from

all exploration wells that have been

drilled from 2017 to date, and Mr

Speaker, out of the seven exploration

wells drilled during the period, six of

them were successful, resulting in seven

discoveries—Seven, Mr Speaker, and if you would permit me, I would state all

the seven.

ENI's Aprokuma-1X well was a double discovery in the Albian and

Cenomanian formations, hence seven

discoveries from the six wells. These

discoveries, Mr Speaker, are as follows:

Aker's Pecan South East, which was discovered in 2018; AGMs Nyankom-

1x, which was discovered in 2019;

Springfield's Afina 1x discovered in 2019; ENI's Eban 1x and Akoma 1x discovered in 2019 and 2021; and ENI's Aprokuma 1x, which was discovered in

2022.

Mr Speaker, during the tenure that the

NDC was in government, no such

discoveries were ever made, nor any oil

added to Ghana's stock except the ones that were actually produced during their

tenure, which were all commenced

during the era of former President

Kufuor. I challenge the Hon Deputy

Minority Leader to provide proof to

demonstrate to the people of this country

that indeed and in fact, any exploration

activities that were commenced by way

of petroleum agreements that were

signed during their tenure have ever

generated the resource addition that

Ghana required for our upstream space.

No such discovery ever took place

during their era.

Mr Speaker, I also heard the Hon

Deputy Minority Leader make assertions

to the fact that the Gold for Oil policy,

which, indeed, has been transformative

in terms of how we procure end pay for

our petroleum products in this country, is

killing Ghanaian businesses. Mr

Speaker, it is surprising, and if you hear

the kinds of comments that they make,

really, it should not be surprising

because they have consistently sought

for this policy to fail. If we listen to the

commentary of our Friends on the other

Side on mainstream or social media,

their intent is for Ghanaians not to

benefit from low pricing on petroleum

products.

Mr Speaker, why do I say so? BOST

itself, when it was established in 1993,

was set up as the strategic stockholder

of our petroleum products here in

Ghana. It was during the NDC's era that they gave BOST a Bulk

Distributing Company (BDC) license.

Mr Speaker, that, clearly, was intended

to allow them compete with the private

sector players in the space, so if BOST

today is performing the same functions

that the NDC Government at the time

licensed them to do, what is the basis

of the complaint?

In any event, what is BOST doing?

BOST, which is operating as a BDC is

being used as a vehicle by the state,

indeed, as a collaborative vehicle with

the other private sector BDCs to import

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

petroleum products into Ghana under the

Gold for Oil policy. Mr Speaker, Gold

for Oil is really simple, and indeed,

yesterday, those of us who had the

benefit of listening to the Vice President

when he commissioned the new offices

of BOST, would have heard the Vice

President explain what the policy is.

Mr Speaker, the policy rationale is

really simple. We all witnessed what the

Russia-Ukraine war and its conse-

quential effects had on supply chain

challenges across the world, and of

course, because of our own peculiar

economic situation, what the impact of

forex availability had on petroleum

pricing in Ghana.

Mr Speaker, petrol prices in Ghana are

constituted of two components: the price

of the commodity in the international

market and foreign exchange here in

Ghana. We cannot really control the

price of the commodity in the global

market, but obviously, because of the

forex availability, demand and supply

forces then influence what people then

pay for the commodity at the pumps.

We realised, of course, that because of the

shortage by Bank of Ghana, BDCs were

forward pricing the Dollar that they were

using to peg the price of the petroleum

products, such that if the foreign exchange

was GH₵10 to the Dollar today, when they bring the commodity in, rather than

selling it for GH₵10, because they are not assured of how much they were

going to generate at the time of

completion of their sale, they price it at

GH₵15 or GH₵20 to the Dollar—

Hon
Deputy Minister, your time is up. Wind
up, please.

Mr Speaker, I am
wrapping up. To conclude, that Gold for
Oil policy is rather what has come in to
help address the rampant increases in the
foreign exchange so that the Ghanaian
consumer can have the benefit of the
low-quality pricing at the pumps.
I thank you so much, Mr Speaker, for

Thank
you very much. We turn to the Hon
Member for Odododiodioo, Mr Nii
Lante Vanderpuye. Hon Member, you
are a Ranking Member; you have 15
minutes. The floor is yours now.
Mr Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye
(NDC — Odododiodioo): Mr Speaker,
thank you very much for the opportunity
you have granted me to be able to
contribute to the Motion to thank His
Excellency the President on his Message
on the State of the Nation. Many
Ghanaians were very pregnant with
disappointment, but unfortunately for
them, the President forced them to have
hard labour when their time was not due.
Mr Speaker, that was the day we
launched the Ghana month, and we were
expecting even our President to appear in
this House as the most important brand

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

ambassador of the state, but he came here

jacked up in Western style suit, not

portraying anything about our country.

On the day when the whole world was

focused on Ghana, our President was

looking alien, a stranger to our cultural

and traditional values. No wonder he

came presenting something that never

looked like the Message on the State of

the Nation. The President was talking

and giving us the address of another

state, which the reality of our situation in

the country today cannot be related to.

Mr Speaker, my frustration was even

worsened when the President, appearing

just a day after what happened in

Ashaiman, decided to be deaf and dumb

to the situation of the people in

Ashaiman.

I was expecting my president, my

campaign manager for the 2020

elections, to have, at least, solidarised

with the people of Ashaiman and pleaded

on behalf of Ghanaians for what they

went through but the President never

empathised with the people.

Mr Speaker, after listening to the

President, my interest, being one of the

people who sit in your Committee on

Local Government and Rural

Development, was further distraught by

the President's failure to say anything about local government. The only thing

the President could say about local

government was how, through the

District Assemblies Common Fund

(DACF), we are providing infrastructure

for the Judiciary.

Mr Speaker, local government, which

is supposed to be the rock upon which

central government is built, was totally

missing from the President's Message on the State of the Nation. This is strange

and unacceptable that in a country like

Ghana, where, in article 240 of the 1992

Constitution, we have said that this

country is built on the structure of local

governance, the President did not

mention a thing about local government.

Mr Speaker, all of us sitting in this

House should feel sad about it because

we, as Members of Parliament, lobby for

and engineer projects though our local

district assemblies so, local government

should be very important to every

Ghanaian.

Mr Speaker, it is not for nothing that a

whole chapter of the 1992 Constitution is

on how to enhance local governance.

However, I was not too surprised

because throughout the six years of his

governance, local governance has meant

nothing to President Akufo-Addo-

nothing! For the first time in the history

of Ghana in his first term, local

government was demoted from its

position on Cabinet and he has

continued.

Mr Speaker, I am worried because we

thought that one of the persons that the

President and our Hon Brothers and

Sisters on the other Side would want to

call ‘general' is not the Hon Minister of

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Local Government, Decentralisation and

Rural Development, and the President

did not deem it fit to say something or

mention anything that the Ministry has

done.

Mr Speaker, the state of Ghana cannot

be depicted, painted or portrayed without

any emphasis on local governance but

this President has totally erased local

government from his books. So, he can

come and stand in this House for almost

one-and-half hours to talk about Ghana

without mentioning a thing about local

governance. That is very unfortunate. It

is not right and practitioners of local

governance have been lamenting till

date.

Mr Speaker, as we sit here, this

Government has introduced an

application for the collection of rates,

fees and charges under the local

governance system. The people are not

important to the Government but their

money is important to them. The Akans

say that; “W'anya biribi amma w'ase a, emmo no kronoo”. The President, after frustrating the people in local

government, is also taking their money.

Mr Speaker, as we speak today, the

President says that all property rates, fees

and charges at the district assembly level

are supposed to be taken over by the

central Government. As if we are not

worried about the non-releases of the

DACF to the local governments in order

to help our assemblies function

effectively, even the little the assemblies

get from the Internally Generated Funds

(IGF) would also go to the central

Government.

Mr Speaker, we do not know when

those releases, when they come, would

be returned to the assemblies to now,

enable your district assembly to embark

on the little things like patching of

potholes among others, in your district

which have seen a lot of deterioration.

The district assembly cannot fix gutters

in your district that have been left

undone since the days of the former

president, John Mahama's Administration, because the little IGF

they get is taken away by the central

Government. More so, we do not know

when these moneys would be remitted to

the assemblies after they have been taken

away. The President, in spite of all these,

did not see the importance of the local

government structure to even mention

anything about it in the Message on the

State of the Nation.

Mr Speaker, today, when one goes to

the assemblies, it is either the District

Chief Executives (DCEs) have run away

from their offices or you would see them

sitting with their chins in their palms.

They seem very frustrated and in a very

lamentable state.

Mr Speaker, it is my hope that the little

that we send to the districts, through our

DACF, to embark on projects would not

be claimed by His Excellency the

President as projects of his Government.

Today, all ongoing projects in the

districts are the ones that have been

initiated by Members of Parliament

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

(MPs); Government, on its own, has

nothing to do with local governance.

Today, if one is not careful, the little that

the assemblies get through development

partners would also go away because the

development partners are unwilling to

continue supporting them.

Mr Speaker, this is frustrating and a

danger to the development of our

districts and every Ghanaian,

irrespective of our local political

persuasions must be convinced that we

need to prompt the President that his

attention on local governance has

diminished to zero and he needs to wake

up.

Mr Speaker, what worries me about

this is the fact that I know how Messages

on the State of the Nation are prepared.

With the opportunity granted me by

former President John Dramani Mahama

to become an Hon Minister, I know that

every Ministry prepares something for

the Office of the President to constitute

the material, the source document for the

Message on the State of the Nation.

Mr Speaker, let me ask, did our Hon

Minister for Local Government,

Decentralisation and Rural Development

present any paper to the Office of the

President? Did he, along with his Hon

Deputy Ministers, present anything to

the President and the President ignored

them? Did he not find it worthy? Or they

did not send anything? Did they renege

on their responsibilities to send the

President a paper on local government in

the past year and the year ahead? Or the

President is telling us that the paper they

sent to him was not worthy of any

material to constitute a page or even a

line in his address?

Mr Speaker, this is very important and

I am asking that we call the Hon Minister

for Local Government, Decentralisation

and Rural Development to this House

and ask him if he sent a material to the

President, why did the President refuse

to see it or find it worthy to constitute

something worthy of telling Ghanaians

on the state of local governance in this

country?

Mr Speaker, before I wrap up and

yield, I would like to correct my Hon

Brother, Mr Egyapa Mercer that under

the National Democratic Congress

(NDC), we had 21 new oil wells — oil discoveries -- and that cannot be disputed because it is a matter of fact.

Mr Speaker, all the unfortunate

incidents that characterised the approval

of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District

Chief Executives (MMDCEs), which we

raised in this House, is a blot on the local

governance system and the democratic

constitutional governance we are

evolving. It has not been investigated.

We have called for it to be investigated

on several occasions. At least, we are

waiting for the investigation of those

people who attacked and assaulted our

Hon MP from the Ashanti Region for

attempting to be present in the approval

of the DCE who was nominated for his

district.

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

We are waiting because it frowns on

the immunity of the MP and abuse of his

privileges. We would want these

incidents to be investigated, and those

who perpetuated those unfortunate acts

brought to book so that sanity and

discipline would prevail between MPs

and their assembly members.

Mr Speaker, as if that was not enough,

up till today, we sit here and lament

about when the next releases for the

DACF will arrive. The manner this

Government is treating local governance

is appalling, a shame, disgraceful and an

attack on the constitutional provisions in

article 240 of the 1992 Constitution.

Mr Speaker, I would like all Hon MPs

to urge the Government to pave way for

the local governance system to evolve

the way it is supposed to evolve under

the system we are practising. We shall go

forward and all activities at the local

level would be used as a conduit to push

for the democratic governance we are

practising.

Mr Speaker, I wish Mr President did

not ignore local government because he

did not find it worthy like the way he

ignored Andy Appiah-Kubi, Eugene

Boakye Antwi, and the others on their

call for the removal of the Hon Minister

for Finance. If that was his attempt, then,

I urge the “group of 88”, since they are so much interested in the development

and growth of local governance, to rise

again and ask the President to act in the

interest of Ghana.

With these words, I yield, Mr Speaker.

Hon
Members, let me now turn to my right
and to the back and call the Hon Member
for Mpraeso, Mr Davis Ansah Opoku.

Thank you very much, Mr
Speaker, for the opportunity to
contribute to the Motion to thank His
Excellency the President of the Republic
of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-
Addo, for a wonderful presentation to
this House on the state of Ghana's economy.
Mr Speaker, in fact, when the
President presented before this House
the current state of —[Interruption]. Well, I am surprised my elder is saying
this about his colleague elder. When the
President presented the Message on the
State of the Nation to this House, I saw
in the President a man who is sincere, a
man who is ready to accept that we went
through difficult moments, and a man
who is ready to drive this country
through these difficult moments onto a
path that we would all be comfortable
with. Of course, before COVID-19,
several publications touted Ghana as the
fastest growing economy in Africa. It
was no fluke that in Ghana, we had banks
and establishments chasing businesses to
invest but post-COVID-19, we have seen
the devastating effects of COVID-19 on
our local economy.
Mr Speaker, when COVID-19 struck,
we had shortfalls in revenue and I am

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

very sure that our Hon Colleagues on the

other Side will accept that. Businesses

closed down. My mother used to travel

from Accra to Lagos to buy wares to sell

in this country. Our borders, for nearly

over a year, got closed and that affected

my mother's businesses. If she were coming into this country with her wares,

she would have to pay taxes at the

borders in Volta Region, but clearly the

closure of the border in the Volta Region

affected her businesses and also affected

revenue generation in our country.

Mr Speaker, our school system got

disrupted; students were not allowed to

go to school. They were in the house and

we needed to find innovative ways to, at

least, catch up for persons who were in

the tertiary institutions. People who were

working for Government had to sit at

home. At a point, they had to be rationed.

These are all factors that affected our

local system, and the country Ghana

when we went through COVID-19.

Of course, we cannot also rule out the

effect of the Russia-Ukraine war. I come

from an area where most of my people

are businessmen and business women. In

fact, some of my people engage in the

importation of iron rods into this

country, a chunk of which I know come

from Ukraine and Russia. The effect of

this war on their businesses is telling. I

have always maintained that when

COVID-19 struck, I sat in this Chamber

and when Business of the House had

slowed down, I went to Kantamanto and

engaged my people there. People were

keeping their moneys and they did not

want to import second-hand items into

this country. Largely, every business got

affected.

Mr Speaker, I have always maintained

that sometimes, God has a way of

blessing a nation and giving us leaders

that are able to steer the affairs of this

country in difficult moments to a more

promising state. But for the NPP in

Government, COVID-19 would have

brought this country to a halt, but the

President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-

Addo, managed it well.

Mr Speaker, I would like to focus on

certain aspects of our economy. First, I

would like to look at issues of sanitation

and water. Water coverage in this

country increased from 79 per cent in

difficult moments, we have a

Government that is willing and ready to

ensure that every Ghanaian gets potable

water to drink.

Mr Speaker, some of the projects that

were undertaken by the Government,

such as the Upper East Region Water

Supply Project Phases I and II which saw

the Government improving water supply

in Navrongo, Bolgatanga, Paga,

Zuarungu, Bongo and the surrounding

communities, clearly indicate that

Government is committed to improving

on water condition. The expected

capacity that this water system is

supposed to reach is 347,000 and clearly,

this is a Government that cares for its

people. In Greater Accra, the Greater

Accra Metropolitan Area Sanitation and

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Water Project got some level of

improvement. The project has improved

access to potable water to over 420,000

in this country.

Mr Speaker, as regards sanitation, the

percentage of national population with

the least basic access to toilet facilities

increased from 21 per cent in 2017 to

25.3 in 2021 according to the Ghana

Statistical Services (GSS). Clearly, it

tells us that this is a Government that,

despite the difficult moments, would

take care of the basic necessities that

people need to survive in this country.

Mr Speaker, I would like to touch on

the housing sector. Clearly, the

Government, in difficult moments,

continued to improve on the housing

sector. We saw 368 housing units

completed under the security services.

Today, the Ghana Police Service,

immigration officers and the Military

have seen housing units built for them.

Mr Speaker, 2,491 housing units were

completed at Borteyman and Asokore

Mampong during the COVID-19 era.

Forty-one (41) townhouses and 24

apartments have been completed at

Roman Ridge under the redevelopment

programme, and all of these programmes

happened during the COVID-19

pandemic. Clearly, it tells you that the

Government, in providing shelter for the

ordinary Ghanaian, ensured that they, at

least, would have places to sleep and

improve.

Mr Speaker, in concluding, I would

like to touch on the agriculture sector.

This is an area that has seen massive

improvement, even during COVID-19,

and it shows the commitment of H. E.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to

providing food and ensuring food

security in our country. In fact, I would

like to highlight some major food crops

that we grow in our country. With the

exception of rice, we have surpluses of

all the major food crops that we eat in our

country. This can be attributed to the

Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ)

programme, where farmers are being

supported by this Government. It shows

that this is a Government that cares.

Mr Speaker, to end it, I would like to

go back to my point which suggests that

but for the NPP being in government, we

would have been in difficulty. This is not

the first time a country is going to the

International Monetary Fund (IMF). I am

told that this is about the 17th time we are

going to the IMF. These are facts. There

was a time in this country when a

Government decided to go to the IMF,

and they decided to cancel their pro-poor

policies - policies that affected the ordinary man on the street.

Mr Speaker, today, if the NDC were to

be in power, like we saw with the trainee

nurses' allowances, where they took a decision to cancel it when they decided

to go to IMF, they would have cancelled

Free SHS. Today, if the NDC were to be

in power, I am sure that the PFJ

programme would have seen some

cancellation under them, just like they

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

cancelled the teacher trainees' allowance and allowed teachers to pay their own

fees, feed themselves, and buy their own

books at school. Today, if the NDC were

to be in power, the National Health

Insurance Scheme (NHIS) would have

suffered. Today, if the NDC were to be

in power, PFJ would have been yaa mutu

in this country.

Mr Speaker, if the NDC were to be in

power, Ghanaians would have been

climbing banks and banging on doors,

ensuring that the banks find a way to

instantly produce money just to be able

to pay them. But in all these

circumstances and difficult moments,

His Excellency the President, Nana

Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the

NPP Government have ensured that

there is food security in Ghana, that we

have peace, we are enjoying water, we

have uninterrupted electricity, and this

country is moving forward. Certainly,

with what the President submitted and

presented in this House, he has given us

a clear path that shows that Ghana is

getting there, and Insha Allah, by 2024,

Ghanaians would see that the NPP

Government remains the better option

for Ghana.

Mr Speaker, I thank you. [Hear!

Hon
Member for Mpraeso, thank you very
much.
I would now turn to the proverb man,
the man whose mouth cannot be dry
while roasting meat. Alhaji Bashir A.
Fuseini Alhassan, the floor is yours. You
have 15 minutes since you are an Hon
Ranking Member.
Alhaji Bashir A. Fuseini Alhassan
(NDC — Sagnarigu): Mr Speaker, just
to add your favourite one, you cannot
live by the banks of a river and wash your
hands with spittle.
Mr Speaker, I would like to thank you
for the opportunity and to preface my
presentation with the popular maxim that
no matter how much one attempts to
suppress a cork in water, it will always
pop up.
I would like to pay tribute to Prof
Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng for
unearthing a truth His Excellency the
President ran away from. There can be
no doubt about the fact that one of the
most vexing issues of our time and
governance, which has widespread
implications for the governance of this
country, has been our management of
resources.
We were told that over 700 excavators
went missing. The true state of the nation
today, as revealed by Prof Frimpong-
Boateng, is that those excavators are not
missing, and that the beneficiaries of the
theft are in the Jubilee House, and some
can be found at the party headquarters.
This is the statement by Prof Frimpong-
Boateng who said that he was hounded
out of office by the beneficiaries of this
theft so that they could have a free reign
to practise galamsey. So, today, if

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

galamsey is wreaking unprecedented

havoc in the country, our water bodies,

forests, soil and everything, it rests

squarely at the doors of the President.

Our people say that when the mudfish

comes to tell you that the crocodile has

bellyache, you cannot dispute it; they

live together under the water. This is the

story today.

Mr Speaker, this is a copy of the

preface to the 2016 manifesto of the NPP

— [displays document] — and this is supposed to encapsulate the vision of the

then opposition leader, Nana Addo

Dankwa Akufo-Addo. After I finish

reading it, you would say that he even

sounded like a prophet, except that it was

his fate he did not see.

Mr Speaker, with your permission, I

beg to quote, and I can tender it to you if

you so desire:

My vision for Ghana:

Our nation is in crisis: a crisis created

and sustained by the mismanagement,

incompetence and corruption of the

Mahama-led National Democratic

Congress (NDC) government.

Economic conditions are worsening

by the day and there is so much

suffering in the land. But Ghana does

not have to be like this. Ghana

deserves the best.

I have dedicated my life to public

service to change Ghana for good. As

President, with the help of the

Almighty God, I will be committed to

a different kind of government, one

that governs in the national interest,

not for private gain.

Mr Speaker, how prophetic! It is like

he was speaking about today. Conditions

that he talked about here are far worse

than ever before. Today, Ghanaians are

suffering the most excruciating hardship

ever in the annals of our country's history, and I would just give you some

few examples of what I am talking about.

At the time he was talking about this

in 2016, a gallon of petrol was

GH₵14.00; today, a litre of petrol is GH₵14.00. At the time he was speaking, inflation was 15 per cent; today, as we

speak, inflation is 53.7 per cent, which is

above 53 per cent. At that time, the total

national debt from independence to

President Mahama on 7th January, 2017

was GH₵120 billion; today, it is over GH₵600 billion. At the time that he was speaking, interest rate was 25 per cent in

2016; today, as we speak, it has gone

beyond 45 per cent. At that time, US$1

was equivalent to GH₵4; today, one cannot even quantify it: it is GH₵13, GH₵14 GH₵15, and above. Food inflation, at that time, was 38 per cent;

today, as we speak, it is 122 per cent

plus.

Mr Speaker, the worst record of

economic performance in this country in

terms of any growth on an annual basis

for any particular year has been under the

watch of H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa

Akufo-Addo and H. E. Mahamadu

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Bawumia - 0.4 per cent in 2020. That is the worst record.

In the Message on the State of the

Nation, he sought to portray that the 3.4

per cent under the NDC Administration

was worse. The worst record ever has

been under the NPP - 0.4 per cent in 2020. Mr Speaker, in the year 2016 for

instance, Ghana's rating by the rating agencies, whether Standard & Poor's (S&P), Moody's or Fitch, had graded Ghana “B”. Today, our grading is junk. In fact, at a certain point, we were

downgraded to further junk.

Mr Speaker, the best economic

performance in terms of annual growth

has been 14.1 per cent in the year 2011.

So, never in the annals have we

defaulted, not even under the military

Government of General Acheampong,

when he said yentua. It was reversed, and

Ghana honoured its debt obligations.

Today, we are the laughing stock of the

international community, where we are

unable to pay our debts, and people are

running away from us. This is the worst

situation that Ghana has ever faced.

Mr Speaker, there are many more

things, but for want of time, I would just

say that when a President is confronted

with these dire statistics and challenges

to the very lives of our people, one would

have expected that when he had this

glorious opportunity to address this

House, he would have provided us with

a glimmer of hope at least; a light at the

end of the tunnel.

What the President did here was to

give a hopelessly uninspiring speech; the

speech did not provide a light at the end

of the tunnel. Ghanaians expected to hear

the President say that with these issues

we are facing, and as the leader of the

nation-- as it is said, ...it is in times of trauma and difficulty that the true

character of leaders as far as sacrifice is

concerned emerges. This is the President

who cannot broker an iota of sacrifice

Ghanaians expected to hear the President

say that because of the difficulties we are

going through, he will reduce the size

of his Government by half and downsize

his obolo, obese and oversized

Government; he did not say any such

thing, not even by word. He did not say

that he would reduce the size of his

appointees at the Jubilee House to reflect

the austerity and sacrifice of the nation;

he did not say a word. He could have said

that he will fight corruption and reduce

waste. Rather, the President ran away

from the fight against corruption.

Mr Speaker, Ghanaians expected to

hear that the President will reduce his

insatiable appetite for luxury and

extravagance; he did not do that.

Ghanaians expected to hear him say that

he will cut down his one-man long

convoy, including one of the cars in the

convoy that carries only his chair; it

never happened. That is why the millions

of Ghanaians who listened to the

President's speech were in tears. It was nothing more than the singing of a

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

funeral dirge of millions of Ghanaians— and the nail in the coffins of Ghanaians.

This is not leadership.

Mr Speaker, the President also told

this House that there has been no misuse

of COVID-19 funds. We were in this

House and we perused the Auditor-

General's Report, and it is replete with abuses, including even paying for

vaccines that were not supplied and

fictitious figures that were put in charge

for attempting to explain expenditures

that were incurred for COVID-19 funds.

Mr Speaker, what is even more bizarre

was the reckless sharing of the COVID-

19 funds, to which a leading member of

the NPP in my constituency in fact, the

one who contested me in the 2020

elections, Madam Felicia Tetteh, said

that she had been a beneficiary of the

COVID-19 funds that the NPP was

sharing like toffees. She said that she

alone got GH₵100,000. She said that she got GH₵50,000 as a candidate of the NPP, and that all the 275 candidates of

the NPP were given GH₵50,000 each, and as the First Vice Chairperson of the

NPP, she also got another GH₵50,000 that made a total of GH₵100,000. What could be a more eloquent testimony of

misuse of COVID-19 funds than this?

Mr Speaker, we are talking about the

situation where the President said that

they had not borrowed recklessly, and I

just gave you the records of what former

President Mahama's stewardship was

when he was leaving office on 7th

January, 2017. It was GH₵120 billion. I

take judicious notice of what the

President said in opposition at that time.

He said that was reckless borrowing and

that the Government then had borrowed

so much, and had increased the debt to

US$120 billion. He said that when the

NPP comes to power, they will not

borrow; yεte sika so nso kͻm de yεn. That

is what the President said.

Dr Bawumia said he had worked at the

Bank of Ghana and knows that there is

money in the country, and that they

would not borrow; they would

harmonise and harness the money to be

able to prosecute development without

borrowing. He said that borrowing was

an act of lazy governance.

Mr Speaker, if the debt has risen from

GH₵120 billion to over GH₵600 billion

today, I do not know the English word to

even coin. It is worse than

“recklessness”. The Government has run

amok. The evidence of the recklessness

of the borrowing is the inability to pay.

If one borrows sensibly and uses it

productively, one should be able to

invest that money, and when the time

comes for the individual to pay, he or she

should be able to pay back. We are in

such a sorry state and huge ditch today

because the Government is unable to

service its debts. We have become a

laughing stock of the international

community because they say the country

is a debt-distress nation that cannot

honour its international and local

obligations.

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Mr Speaker, for the first time in our

history, our senior citizens have had to

come out openly to demonstrate their

anger against this Government for

attempting to forcibly take away their

moneys. These are people who have

rendered decades of quality public

service to us. That has not been down,

and as we speak, the nation is still in

distress.

Mr Speaker, I would also like to

indicate that one of the vexed issues

before this House, which you are also an

interested party, is the issue of roads.

Every Hon Member of Parliament in this

House has assessed the Hon Minister for

Roads and Highways for roads, and so if

one has the opportunity to resource the

Hon Minister for Roads and Highways to

construct more roads and pay

contractors—

My Hon Colleague just spoke not too

long ago, and he said that we owe

contractors over GH₵10 billion. As we

speak now, many contractors are packing

their equipment and fleeing from their

contracts because they have not been

paid, and a lot of them had to lay off their

workers. If we have money, we should

be resourcing the Hon Minister for

Roads and Highways to pay contractors

and open up more new roads so that all

of us as Hon Members of Parliament,

who are being attacked by our

constituents and others for roads, would

have the opportunity to redeem

ourselves.

Mr Speaker, as if that was not enough,

we are operating a very obnoxious— because you are in the Chair, I would be

very charitable. The word to use is

“senseless” policy of capping. The Road Fund is already not enough, and then, we

have started capping it and taking the

moneys back to the Ministry of Finance.

What kind of Minister for Finance is

this? That, even with the budgetary

allocations that this House gives, they

are not able to meet the full gamut of that

allocation. Yet, when we have the Road

Fund that could give more opportunity

for resources to be made available to the

Ministry of Roads and Highways to pay

contractors, he then goes back and cap it

again.

Mr Speaker, I am advocating that this

House should take a serious look at this

senseless capping policy, especially in

critical areas such as the Road Fund

where we can generate more resources

and ensure that our contractors are paid.

Many more roads could be constructed

so that the pressure that we all face in our

constituencies, because of roads and

others, could be adequately taken care of.

Mr Speaker, I would also like to

indicate my solidarity with millions of

Ghanaians today-- which is a reflection of the true state of the nation in respect

of the issuance of the Ghana Card. As we

speak now, there are millions of

Ghanaians who cannot renew the

registration of their SIM cards. They

have been stopped from using their SIM

cards because they do not have access to

the Ghana Card.

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Hon
Member, your time is almost up. Please
wind-up.

Mr Speaker, the
solidarity is with the millions of
Ghanaians, who through no fault of
theirs, cannot get their Ghana Cards to be
able to renew their SIM cards. This is
also a veritable threat to our democratic
process, where if we are not careful, and
we want to stick to the issue that those
who have turned 18 years or above 18
but for one reason or the other were
unable to register, but would like to do so
now are deprived because they do not
have their Ghana Cards—we are putting our democracy on a time bomb. I dare
say that this House has a historic
responsibility to rise up to that challenge
and ensure that the fundamental and
inalienable rights and freedoms of our
people are not toyed with on the altar of
the partisan interest of any group. It is
important that we all work to ensure that
access to the Ghana Card is attained by
every Ghanaian who is willing and ready
to take it. Until such a time, Mr Speaker,
we would be doing ourselves a discredit
and be plotting the way for a serious
threat to our democratic process.
Mr Speaker, on that score, I would like
to thank you for the opportunity and may

Alhaji
Alhassan, thank you very much. I will
now turn to my right and call the Hon
Member for Atwima-Nwabiagya North,
Mr Benito Owusu-Bio.
Mr Wireko-Brobby — rose —

Hon
Member for Hemang Lower Denkyira,
hold on. I have not called you.
Hon Members, before I call Mr
Wireko-Brobby, I want you to indulge
me to suspend the House for 10 minutes.
4.37 p.m. — Sitting Suspended.
4.44 p.m. — Sitting resumed.

Hon
Member for Ketu North, are you
debating today?

Mr Speaker, no, I am not.
I was just concerned about your strength
to continue.

God
will provide.
Hon Members, I would now come to
the Hon Deputy Minister for Employment
and Labour Relations, Mr Bright
Wireko-Brobbey.

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Hon Member, you have 10 minutes.

Mr
Speaker, I am grateful for the
opportunity to contribute by way of
thanking His Excellency the President
for the Message on the State on the
Nation, which he delivered to Parliament
on Wednesday, 8th March, 2023.
Mr Speaker, before I do that, I would
add my voice to the prayers that people
prayed for you. This time, we sit for too
long. When you were coming, you were
so gorgeous. We pray God gives you
strength.
Mr Speaker, before I proceed, I would
like to draw our attention to page 3 of the
Message of the State of the Nation
delivered by His Excellency the
President. It appears that our Hon
Colleagues on the other Side were not
listening to the message properly or they
were looking for holes, which were not
even existent.
Mr Speaker, I heard the Hon Member
for Odododiodio say that His Excellency
the President did not touch on local
government and other areas. However,
page 3 of the Message on the State of the
Nation is instructive. With your
permission, I beg to quote His Excellency
the President:
As such, Mr Speaker, I wish to make
a departure from the usual format of
Messages on the State of the Nation,
and concentrate, predominantly, on the
economy, which will enable me,
nonetheless, also to make some
statements about the state of our
agriculture, education, energy, health,
infrastructure, mining, tourism and
security.
Mr Speaker, His Excellency the
President says that he wishes to depart
from the usual ones that we always want
to hear. He goes to say, and with your
permission, I beg to quote:
This is not to belittle the contribution
of the other sectors to the growth of
our country, but I believe the
exigencies of the moment justify the
position I am taking…
Mr Speaker, “the other sectors”
include local government. So, we can see
clearly; every music has the kind of
dance that we dance to it. His Excellency
the President did not just leave out local
government. In fact, he touched on
salient points there, but this is the
justification that it is not to belittle those
sectors, but to concentrate on the bread-
and-butter issues that we are faced with
today.
Mr Speaker, I would like to go straight
to what we are doing in the area of
employment, where many people are
surviving in spite of the difficulties that
we have as a country and the challenges
that we go through in modern times.
Mr Speaker, his Excellency the
President said that in spite of all these

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

difficulties, we have had to employ over

58,000 health workers to supplement the

workforce so that whatever COVID-19

did to us would not be a problem to us.

This is something commendable and we

should let our Hon Members know.

Mr Speaker, in the area of jobs, as I

speak, the World Bank, in collaboration

with the Ministry of Education, the

Ministry of Employment and Labour

Relations, and the Ministry of

Environment, Science, Technology and

Innovation, is undertaking a project

called the Ghana Jobs and Skills Project.

As we speak, through that, we had the

YouStart Project, which we heard last

year; we are targeting over 100,000

youth, particularly, in the informal space

to create jobs for them; and this is

instructive.

Mr Speaker, so, when our Hon

Colleagues talk from the other Side, it is

as if Ghana is collapsing. However, in

spite of the difficulties, everybody is able

to have some meal on the table before the

day ends, and I think it is important that

we say this.

Mr Speaker, as we speak, we are

refurbishing public employment centres

which would provide access for people

to go and seek for jobs and so on. So, in

spite of the fact that we are not openly

recruiting people in the formal space, a

lot of attention —

Mr Speaker, this year alone, if we look

at the Basic Education Certificate

Examination (BECE) results that came

and the people that are accessing

educational opportunities, moving forward,

over 40,000 people have now subscribed

to Technical and Vocational Education

and Training (TVET). It would interest

you to know that people are even now

turning down opportunities in Achimota

Senior High School, St. Augustine's

College, and so on, to do TVET because

of the opportunities that are provided in

that space.

Mr Speaker, a lot is happening under

His Excellency the President, Nana

Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and we

need to “shine our eyes” and see that our

children are now so happy in spite of the

fact that we are in hardships. If we look

at the global trends, it is not too easy but

believe me, the Government is doing

what it can to ensure that people really

survive.

Mr Speaker, one thing that is more of

a precedent, which has not happened

before, is the fact that in spite of the state

of the economy, this year, in the Ministry

of Employment and Labour Relations,

together with our labour force and

employers, we were able to peg salary

increment by 30 per cent. This is

unprecedented. If anybody was earning,

say, GH₵100, the person now goes home

with a 30 per cent increment. This is

unprecedented; it has never happened.

The cumulative increment in salaries

between 2013 and 2016 did not match up

to this pay increment of 30 per cent.

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Mr Speaker, so, when this is

happening in the economy, how can

somebody say that the economy is in

shambles? People are taking money now

and their pockets have increased. Yet,

the Hon Members of the Minority are in

the House saying that the economy is —

Mr Speaker, the last Hon Member that

spoke before me, the Hon Member for

Sagnarigu, talked about debts that have

accumulated from US$120 billion to

about US$600 billion. All these things

are happening — every sector of the

economy is registering massive

improve-ment. If we talk about

borrowing money for things the people

see and feel, I do not think that it is bad

in any way. So, these are things that we

need to mention.

Mr Speaker, to conclude, I would just

mention what is also happening in the

pension space. We know the way our

pensions are: people are normally even

not concerned about their pensions until

they are getting to their retirement age.

However, we must all remember on the

day that we are employed that there

would be a day that we would retire. This

Government is so conscious of it. The

first thing that has even happened to us

which is unprecedented is the emphatic

statement by His Excellency the President

that the pension space should now be

overseen constructively, properly and

effectively by the Hon Minister for

Pensions, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah.

So, it has given the opportunity for us to

ensure that people now become very

conscious of their pensions, which we

are doing.

Mr Speaker, as we speak now, the

pension space now has about GH₵40

billion assets under management and this

is what is happening. Before 2017,

people had to queue for about three to six

months when they go on pension before

they access their lump sum. As we speak

today, before people retire, they are

being called to go and fill out their forms,

and so on, so that just after they retire,

they can get their pensions.

Mr Speaker, this is so significant.

These are the things that the people

would want to see. This is because if

individuals get their pensions, their

families would enjoy, and these are the

people who would vote in 2024.

So, it is not about the argument we

make in the House as if Ghana is in

shambles. People are really making ends

meet, and this is what we are trying to

ensure.

Mr Speaker, with these few words, let

me thank His Excellency the President

for coming to deliver the Message, and I

thank you for the opportunity given to

me to make this contribution.

Thank
you very much. Former Hon Deputy
Minority Leader, it pains me to see you
standing, but the rules regarding this

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

debate is that once somebody is on the

Floor, we do not entertain interjections,

point of orders and those things. These

are the rules we have, so if you have any

information or you see your Hon

Colleague peddling “untruth”, you have

to jot it down. It would get to your turn

for you to address that issue, or if you

would not speak, give it to your Hon

Colleague to address that issue. Please,

this is the order, that is why I refused to

call you.

Mr Speaker, thank you
very much that you have explained this
to me. The only challenge I have with is
that if an Hon Member makes a
statement which is factually incorrect,
and if the Hon Member speaking after
him does not correct it, it would remain
in the Hansard.

This is
exactly what I am saying.

That would be wrong for
us. There are statements that are
factually incorrect and which need to be
corrected immediately the person makes
the comment.

It is
true. I share your view, but quickly give
that information to your Hon Colleague
to address that issue if you are not
speaking after that Hon Member. We just
want to have orderliness in the debate,
and I think everybody would testify that
this year's debate has been quite fluid.
So, let us conclude it that way.
Incidentally, I have observed only
three ladies have contributed since we
started this debate last Thursday. We
have encountered almost 60 contributors,
and it is only three ladies who have
contributed. If the Hon Leader is saying
four, that is fine, but even if it is four, it
is woefully inadequate.
I would come to my former colleague
backbencher, Mrs Angela Oforiwaa
Alorwu-Tay.
Mrs Angela Oforiwaa Alorwu-Tay
(NDC — Afadzato South): Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to also
comment on the President's Message this evening.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Deputy Minister
for Employment and Labour Relations,
who just spoke, is not in this country
again. He has lost touch with the reality
on the ground. In his presentation, he
said that the Government increased
salaries by 30 per cent. He gave an
example that if one earns GH₵100 and the person's salary is increased by 30 per cent, it means the person has a lot of
money in his or her pocket. There are
lots of money in our pockets now with
the inflation in the country now? I would
like to give him an example.
Mr Speaker, you see this gallon?
[Displayed gallon with kerosene prices].
The green inscription is price of kerosene
in 2016 while the red is the price of
kerosene in 2023. In 2016, kerosene was
GH₵18 per gallon, but in 2023, it is GH₵80. So, if my salary is increased by

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

30 per cent, what have they done to the

local person in my village in Nyagbosroe

in my Constituency? Again, I would like

to comment on what the Hon Deputy

Minister said. A loaf of bread today is

GH₵30. So if I used to earn GH₵100 and I am given a 30 per cent increment,

the bread I used to buy for GH₵5 is going for GH₵15 or GH₵30 today. How many loaves of bread would I be able to

buy? The Hon Deputy Minister and the

President have lost touch with the reality

on the ground.

The Hon Minister also went ahead to

say that the President recruited over

58,000 nurses, and he became so happy

about that one. Yes! How was the

COVID-19 money used? How many

hospitals were built from this money?

Somebody built Ga South Hospital,

University of Ghana Medical Centre

(UGMC), Legon Hospital, Korle-Bu

Teaching Hospital, Bank of Ghana

Hospital, and Kasoa Polyclinic. The NPP

Government said we have done nothing.

Where would they have put those 58,000

nurses? Tell me. Would they have been

treating people under trees just as

students sit under trees to learn today?

No!

Mr Speaker, what am I trying to say? I

am saying that these 58,000 nurses that

were recruited and they are happy about,

the credit should go to the NDC and

former President John Mahama. They

would not have been able to even get

places for people who were infected with

COVID-19 last year to be treated. Hon

Colleagues here who got infected and

were sick were admitted in some of these

hospitals during the period. What are

they trying to tell us? The moneys they

took during the COVID-19 pandemic

period — Mr Speaker, for their information, the President and his

economic team are still owing Korle-Bu

Teaching Hospital GH₵5 million for treating COVID-19 patients. They are

still owing the frontline nurses who

worked their allowances; allowances of

50 per cent of the salaries of those who

got infected. The people who took all the

COVID-19 moneys are still owing them.

What are they trying to tell us? They

have not done any proper thing.

Mr Speaker, may I take you to page 22

of the 2023 Message on the State of the

Nation. The President said and I quote:

As President, I have championed the

innovation of policies and the

execution of projects that have helped

improve the quality of life of the

Ghanaian people.

Which of the projects? Is it the One

Village, One Dam that he himself made

so much noise about from 2015 to 2018?

We never debated in this House without

the mention of the launch of One Village,

One Dam. Where are the dams? Today,

in page 6 of the President's own Message, conspicuously missing is the

One Village One Dam Policy.

Mr Speaker, now, he is mentioning the

“wicked” man John Mahama's projects in his Message on page 6. He mentioned

about four irrigations — he should mention

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

his One Village One Dam project. Where

are the dams? There used to be one dam

in my constituency in Ve Gbodomeh in

the middle of the road. Anytime it stops

raining, the dam remains in the middle of

the road. Is that the kind of policy he has

introduced to help us? He should tell us.

Is that the kind of policy he says has

improved our lives? It cannot be.

Mr Speaker, I would like to take us to

another area where I find disheartening.

This is where my Hon Senior and former

Committee Colleague said that the

President did not speak about the Ministry

of Local Government, Decentralisation,

and Rural Development. The President

had no issue on them because he felt that

— and then he said he was not belittling them. Which Ministry drives our local

issues? It is the Ministry of Local

Government, Decentralisation, and Rural

Development that talks about these

things, so if they are unable to give us

anything on this, it means mo nyƐƐ hwee wͻhͻ. They have not done anything, and this is how come they cannot mention it.

Mr Speaker, the President spoke about

agriculture. He should go and ask the

Minister for Food and Agriculture who

would like to be President today. We are

importing plantain and the rest from

other communities. In their contri-

butions, one of them said that there is so

much food. They should go to Aflao;

there are a lot of foodstuffs coming from

Togo. What are they trying to tell us? Is

that the improvement in our lives that we

have got? [Interruption] Please listen to

me. I am from the Volta Region; pepper

and other things are imported from Togo.

Their agricultural programme is a total

failure because they would have used

their One Village, One Dam water to do

irrigation that does not exist.

Mr Speaker, on that note, I would like

to tell them there is also a very bad news

on page 22 of the 2022 Message on the

State of the Nation; the President

mentioned that he built 80 warehouses.

However, in this year's Message, the President reported on 65 warehouses.

Who are the people writing the

President's speech? Are they trying to put the President into trouble for the

citizens to hate him more for the non-

performance?

Mr Speaker, may I also know whether

— [Interruption] — When these people heckle me, I will heckle them the more.

What I said is that out of the 80

warehouses he built, 15 got vaporised

because of the Russia-Ukraine War.

Yɛnnhunu oo! [Interruption] — 2022, herh! It is there on page 22 of the 2022

Message on the State of the Nation. He

reported on 80 warehouses; in 2023, 65.

15 warehouses no wͻ hen? Why are they treating us as if we cannot read in this

House? He reported on 80 warehouses in

2022, and now he is reporting on 65. The

15 no ɛkͻ Russia-Ukraine war anaa? Ahye, anaa obi a demolishe? What are

they doing to us?

Mr Speaker, I am calling on you to

make sure that you set up a Committee to

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

investigate the loss of 15 warehouses that

belong to Ghanaians. We need it! We

want to know where the 15 warehouses

have gone to. Is it in somebody's room? One cannot carry a building, so why

should he tell us that they were 80 and

now 65? It is in the Message on the State

of the Nation for 2022 and 2023, so if

Hon Members want, they should go and

read about it.

Mr Speaker, the last issue I would like

to talk about is the award of the Order of

Volta to the COVID-19 committee

members. Award oo ͻmo di ama committee members who were reading

speeches. Those people who were on the

field treating COVID-19 patients were

not recognised, in addition to the non-

payments of their allowances and

insurances.

Mr Speaker, who deserves an award?

Is it the speech writer or the doctor? Ah!

There is a doctor by name Dr Joseph

Oliver. Dr Joseph Oliver, baba nami, and

on behalf of the Minority here, I want to

take this opportunity to say mo kosɛ. We are coming back in the year 2024 and we

would give him all the awards that he

needs, because, for us, we recognise that

he saved lives, including that of Hon

Members in this Chamber.

Mr Speaker, the final gong is that — [Hon Member hit the gallon] — kerosene was GH₵18.00 in the year 2016, and today, it is GH₵80.00.

Mr Speaker, on that note, I thank you

Thank
you very much. You have just ended on
your time.
Leadership, I would take the last round
of debaters. We have already had six
debaters each. Initially, we said we
would take five from each Side, but we
have already taken six from each Side,
and I would take one more debater from
each Side to conclude. Afterwards, we
would listen to the Committee on Youth,
Sports and Culture, who have a
Statement on the player who was,
unfortunately, involved in the Turkey
accident. So, we would take the last
round, and the Hon Member for Asante
Akim North, Mr Andy Kwame Appiah-
Kubi, would be the last person.
Mr Andy Kwame Appiah-Kubi
(NPP — Asante Akim North): Mr
Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity
to contribute to this debate, and I am
happy that Hon Colleagues are urging
my Hon Sister on to sit and also listen to
us as we attempt —

Hon
Member for Asante Akim North, you
have 10 minutes.

Mr Speaker, I thank
you for the opportunity to contribute.
Mr Speaker, you know that it is
normally not my style to attempt to rebut
the submissions of my Hon Colleagues
on the other Side, but for the purpose of
setting the records straight, I would

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

attempt a rebuttal of just the deduction

on the income appreciation and

proposing that it is for the whole period

of 2017 up till now.

Mr Speaker, all of us were in class

where we learnt cumulative appreciation

of rates. What my Hon Colleague

referred to as an increment of 30 per cent

is in respect of only this year; therefore,

from the years 2017 to 2023, we have

had increases over the time. So, the 30

per cent is even affecting the cumulative

proposition of the salaries as at the end

of 2022. So, it is not 30 per cent from the

2017 up till now. We have had

incremental jumps over the period from

2017 up till 2022; therefore, this 30 per

cent is, in effect, affecting the cumulative

average up till the end of 2022. So, 30

per cent is the increase for the year 2023,

and that is the correction I would want to

put across.

Mr Speaker, we thank the President.

When he came here, he reminded us that

as a people, we have chosen the path of

democracy, which means that we

acknowledge our responsibilities as

leaders pursuant to the consent of the

citizenry and, therefore, whatever we do,

we make references to the expectations

of the citizenry. For me, democracy is

expensive, but we have tried the other

ones, and I am sure all of us here who

witnessed pre-democracy governance

will attest to the fact that it is even better

now, even though we proclaim that it is

expensive, and that it is by this democracy

that we have opportunities to express

ourselves freely and even attack

government institutions and policies. So,

democracy, whatever it costs, is better

than those that other people subjected us

to in the past.

Mr Speaker, we have had 30 years of

democratic governance. As a country,

we do not have to forget what we

experienced before the beginning of the

democratic arrangements. Therefore,

sometimes, we are tempted to just

belittle what we are getting under the

democratic dispensation, and sometimes

people just wake up to make allusions to

the effect that we do not even appreciate

the good governance that we are

enjoying in a democratic period.

Mr Speaker, we soon forget about

what we had to endure: sleeping before

six o'clock; people losing their families

and family heads, just a little while ago.

Thirty years down the line, we have

forgotten, and when people come here,

speak their minds, and go to sleep in

tranquil, we take it for granted. Democracy

as we have enjoyed — We must appreciate

the contributions that all of us have made

for us to get this far.

Mr Speaker, it is important for all of us

to uphold this democratic tenet and also

make sure that our country, Ghana, is the

safest for all of us, because we do not

have any other destination. The only

final destination is Ghana; therefore,

whatever we do and say, we should have

in contemplation the Ghana that we want

to inherit and bequeath to our children

and grandchildren. So, whatever the

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

situation is, it is important to engage each

other, so that we cross-fertilise ideas and

bring out a hybrid of policies and

programmes that would inure to the

benefit of the country, Ghana.

Mr Speaker, I am saying that Mr

President has done well by reminding us

to be mindful of what we had before and

what we are enjoying now, and that we

must all count ourselves lucky that we

have a better system now and that the

system that we are enjoying and the

governance that we are churning out is to

the benefit of the citizenry, and it is upon

their authority that we are also leaders

and enjoying the democracy as well.

Mr Speaker, we must learn, even as a

House, to accommodate dissent however

bad the submission would be. Let us

advise ourselves that it is better to defeat

that unsatisfactory submission with a

more potent argument, so that one would

retire that submission with more

powerful argument, rather than trying to

turn this place into an arena of fisticuffs.

Gone are the days when people settled

scores with fists. Now, we win argument

with superior submissions and,

therefore, this must be the character of

this House.

Mr Speaker, as we progress, we must

ensure that Parliament is always relevant

to the people of Ghana. Sometimes,

when I hear submissions from people

who observe and listen to us, I bow my

head in shame and, sometimes, when

one's child tells him or her that the Hon Members of Parliament (MPs) were

fighting, I become so ashamed and ask if

I was one of them. So, let us deviate from

that culture and know that it is important

for us to develop ourselves such that we

can defeat submissions with superior

arguments.

Mr Speaker, let me go to the local

government system as my Hon Colleague

talked about. Our Constitution has

created this local government

arrangement, but the unfortunate thing

that I have appreciated is that the

implementation thereof neglects some

important institutions of state. For

example, we created the local government

system where the Executive, again,

nominates one-third of the members of

the assembly, so what have we done? We

have also empowered the Executive even

in the local government setting. Again,

the Executive appoints the leaders of the

local government system, that is the

Metropolitan, Municipal and District

Chief Executives (MMDCEs). So, what

have we done? We have still conferred

power back to the Executive.

Mr Speaker, the only unfortunate thing is that Members of Parliament who represent the whole citizenry of the country go into the local government as people without votes. So, even as we discuss matters in the local government area, the MP cannot exert his or her presence with a vote. Therefore, he or she becomes a passenger in the local assembly. The local government so created by the Constitution is so skewed

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

to the Executive. When we have the leader of the assembly and one-third of the members appointed by the Executive; and the nominees are only two-thirds and the representative of the people has no vote in such an assembly — That is why people are calling for the review of the Constitution and I am hopeful that when the opportunity presents itself — And indeed, it pains me that the last time we had the opportunity to affect the Local Government Act to make the MMDCEs position an elective one, we lost the opportunity.

Mr Speaker, we lost the opportunity

not because we did not understand; we did, but we lost the opportunity because of an ideological interference that was very unnecessary. So, my take is that if we should get the opportunity again, let us grab it and try to bring constitutionalism into the local governance so that we would bring power back to the people who constitute majority within the local area.

Mr Speaker, now, let us look at the

situation of Ghana within the pre- COVID-19 times. So many countries in the world hailed Ghana as the new beacon of hope in Africa, and, therefore, our growth indicators were very impressive. We had financial institutions walking to Ghana to congratulate us —

Hon Member, your time is up, so you should be winding up.

Mr Speaker, post-
COVID-19, we have had challenges, and
I appreciate that. But the challenges are
not unsurmountable. I urge both Sides of
the House to put our heads together to
come above it. For infrastructural
development, it is not enough to count
the number of interchanges or the
distances of roads, but let us look at the
cost implications of such constructions
so that we would do the cost-benefit
analysis and see whether we have had
value-for-money. That is the criterion
that we have to use to judge people who
go into these infrastructural areas and
perform for us. Let us make sure that one
interchange of —

Hon
Member?

Mr Speaker, one
interchange at Circle can construct four
interchanges in Ghana, and someone
would want to compare these two. They
are incomparable.
Mr Speaker, with these kind words, I
send my appreciation to you for the
opportunity, but I would end by saying
that let us look at the figures. One
interchange cost us US$280 million, and
four of them cost us US$283 million.

Hon
Member, thank you very much.

Mr Speaker,
quality in performance is very necessary.

Hon
Member, you have gone past your time.

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Hon Members, I am left with just one

contributor from the Minority Side, and

the names I am hovering around are

three. But I will call the Hon Lady, Mrs

Della Sowah.

Mr Speaker, I humbly
submit that since you have called the
Hon Member for Kpando, which is
alright, please call the last contributor
from the Minority Side after her. The
Majority Side can bring a proposal
because today is the last day.
Mr Speaker, kindly reduce the time,
and let them speak for six minutes each;
it adds up to the same thing.

Hon
Deputy Minority Leader, you do not
sympathise with my situation.
Yes, Mrs Della Sowah, let us hear
from you. I have given her the privilege
because she is an Hon Lady. You have
10 minutes.

Thank you very much, Mr
Speaker, for the opportunity to share few
thoughts on the Motion on the Message
on the State of the Nation.
Mr Speaker, let me begin by briefly
commending the President; at least, he
wished women happy International
Women's Day. He has done well on that
score. I have followed the contributions
of both Sides of the House, and I find that
one Side is constantly bringing proof
after proof that almost everything the
President said here was untrue, and then,
the other Side is also trying unsuccessfully
to prove that what the President said was
actually true.
Mr Speaker, what I think is that there
are two issues here. One is that
sometimes, when a government has
performed so poorly and it has the worst
record in the history of Ghana, it goes
into denial. So, the Government is seeing
that under its watch, what it expected did
not materialise. Debt to gross domestic
product (GDP) ratio is 105 per cent;
inflation is nearly 54 per cent. The
country is at junk status for its credit
ratings, and also, the employment rate is
16 per cent.

Mr Speaker, when the President sits

down and he looks at all these, the

psychologists say he would either go into

denial and deny the reality and praise

himself, or the other thing I can say is

that the President has been actually

insulated, so insulated that people are

telling him what is not the truth. I cry for

him.

If I listened to the last Hon Member

who spoke, the Hon Member for Asante

Akyem North, Mr Andy Appiah-Kubi, a

few months ago, he was very vocal

telling the President the truth but this

same person today is doing otherwise.

He is insulating the President and telling

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

him that what he is doing is good. I cry

for the President.

Mr Speaker, they give him the reports

and the records. They are telling him he

is doing so great, that he has built 106

factories. My goodness! 106 factories?

Where are they? In what districts? In

what communities? It is untrue. They are

also telling him he is so good and the best

in roads, and the people of Avega are

asking where the roads are because they

are still using the bush to their houses.

The President says that he has

constructed several bridges and the

people in Gbefi-Tongu and Kudzra are

asking where the bridges are.

Mr Speaker, the President says that he

has created a good stock in agriculture:

Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ). Mr

Speaker, in my constituency, one farmer

woke up one day and found a “Planting for Food and Jobs” sign on his farm, a private man's farm. The man went to his chief to find out what the matter was, and

found out it was just a video to show the

President that he is doing very well in

agriculture. They have insulated him; he

does not know the reality on the ground.

They tell the President that he has zero

corruption rate, when in actual fact, the

figures and cases are there. He has

become a clearing agent and laughing

stock.

Mr Speaker, he reminds me of a story

we read when we were in primary

school. It is called The Emperor's New

Clothes by Hans Andersen, where the

emperor or president was so insulated.

Everybody was telling him good things:

“You are doing great. You are the best.

In fact, the dress we are sewing for you

is the best in the world”. So, they come

and measure him, saying that they are

sewing a robe for him. The Ministers

come and tell him they have done the

arm; the roads are good. The Minister for

Food and Agriculture comes and tells the

President that there is PFJ so the people

are satisfied.

In his quiet moment, the man looks at

himself and sees hair on his chest and

wonders if the invisible clothes are real.

He looks at his pot belly and wonders if

he is seeing right. They tell him, “No,

you are not seeing right. You are

covered. You are insulated. Go on. You

are the best”. Anywhere he looks, he sees

nakedness, but the Ministers would tell

him he is doing great. They are insulating

him. They are not telling him the truth.

Then, the day comes when the man sits

in his golden carriage and comes to the

Parliament of Ghana to give his report,

and everybody sees that the Emperor is

naked. [Laughter] Everything they have

covered him with is not real. They are

making him feel he is the best in one

thing or another, and it is not true. They

cannot tell him the truth. Why? People

like Mr Andy Appiah-Kubi tried few

months ago to tell the truth. What

happened? He has cowered. After

everything they said about the President,

today, the same people stand on the Floor

and say something different.

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

The man is completely naked and he

does not know it. Those to look him in

the face and tell him his clothes are not

invisible and that he is naked are lying to

him. Otherwise, why on earth would he

bring such an address to the Parliament

of Ghana? We had international people

here viewing it, and he brought it here.

Everything he said in this book is full of

untruths because we have people

parroting that he is going well, that the

sleeves of the robe are fine, whereas the

emperor is really naked!

I cry, I cry, I cry for the President. If

his appointees would be truthful to him,

and tell him what they are really doing,

and what the real state of Ghana is, I

doubt that he would come here and say

that he is the first president to do this or

that. No! They are not telling him the

truth. The man has been completely

insulated from the reality on the ground.

He does not know it.

Mr Speaker, you know, they end their

talk with “If NDC had been in power…” I am telling them the truth. If NDC had

been in power, it would have been

heaven on earth in Ghana. If NDC had

been in power, things would not have

been this bad. If NDC had been in power,

we would not be buying kerosene at

GH₵80 per gallon. If NDC had been in power, we would have roads. The

schools in my constituency would have

chairs. Now, they do not have chairs.

They are sitting on the floor.

Mr Speaker, they should not deceive

the President. They should tell him the

truth: “Mr President, you have failed; your record in Ghana is the worst. You

are going down in history as the worst

President. Under your watch, inflation is

54 per cent”. They should tell him under his watch, the Dollar-to-Cedi ratio is

now GH₵13 to a Dollar. They are not telling him the truth, so he comes and sits

here and says things that are not true.

Mr Speaker, I think something should

be done. Politicians on the other Side

should stop parroting things and telling

the President untruths, and making him

feel good, when in reality, the man is

completely naked.

Mr Speaker, I thank you for the

Hon
First Deputy Majority Whip, your
Colleague is saying we should give him
five minutes. He wants his constituents
to see —

Mr Speaker, we started
this from 8:00 a.m. and my Hon
Colleagues here can bear me out, that we
have been through a lot today. Let us
take the Statement and — [Interruption]. We were at the funeral of the former Rt
Hon Speaker's wife. [Interruption] Well, to the best of my knowledge, the
Chamber closes at 2.00 p.m. It is almost
6.00 p.m., so Mr Speaker, we would have
the Statement —

Very
well. Hon Members, I am giving him

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

three minutes. He wants his constituents

to see that he is also contributing. So,

Hon Member for Central Tongu — [Hear! Hear!] Oh! He is my friend. My

friend, I give you five minutes.

Mr Alexander Roosevelt Hottordze

(NDC — Central Tongu): Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to

contribute to the Motion on the Floor on

the President's Message on the State of the Nation.

Mr Speaker, in paragraph 96 of the

Message, the President sought to suggest

that they were able to improve the

National Health Insurance Scheme

(NHIS) in terms of claims management

as a result of digitilisation.

Agreed, but Mr Speaker, the National

Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as it

stands today does not have much

problem with the claims management

than untimely release of the funds.

Mr Speaker, section 1 of Act 852

enjoins the Hon Minister for Finance to

lodge the National Health Insurance

Levy (NHIL) which is the contribution

from Social Security and National

Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and NHIL into

the National Health Insurance Fund

(NHIF) within 30 days after collection.

But what have we seen over the years?

The Hon Minister has categorically and

incorrigibly refused to heed that

provision of the Act. What am I trying to

press home?

Mr Speaker, in Appendices 3B and 3C

of the 2023 Budget Statement, over

GH₵5.27 billion was realised as the amount from the NHIL and SNNIT

contributions to be lodged into the NHIF.

What did we see? Till date, the Hon

Minister for Finance released only

GH₵2.5 billion — [Interruption] — leaving GH₵2.77 billion — [Interruption] — That is what is financially suffocating the NHIS and the

President's assessment of only the claim management is a clear indication that the

President is not on top of his job — [Interruption] — and to add insult to injury, the President has an incompetent

Minister for Health in place.

Mr Speaker, in the health sector, as a

person who works with the Ministry of

Health, in the health sector, the livewire

of health service delivery is the human

resources for health, and in paragraph 33

of the Message on the State of the

Nation, the President indicated that he

was able to employ 58,041 health workers

to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. But

when one goes to Appendix 7 of the 2021

and 2023 Budget, one would realise that

the staff strength of the Ministry of

Health is dwindling.

Mr Speaker, in the 2021 to 2023

Budget, we have over 69,297 critical

staff who are in short supply. What am I

saying? Apart from few of them who

died or retired, the majority of this

number has left for greener pastures —

Hon
Member, get ready to land —

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Mr Speaker, I am
surprised that the President does not see
any wisdom in ensuring that we
replenish this number. Why do I say so?

Hon
Member?

Mr Speaker, this is
very important. Health is wealth.

Hon
Member, your time is up.

Mr Speaker, as we
speak today, admission into the nurses
training colleges is based on a quota
system —

Hon
Member, I only gave you five minutes.
Your time is up. I thank you for the
opportunity.
Hon Members —

Mr Speaker, in
conclusion, what I want to press home
here is, instead of the Government
increasing production to cater for the
number being lost, the President in his
own wisdom has decided to introduce the
quota system —

Hon
Member, thank you —

Mr Speaker, this
means that the number we train —

Hon
Member —

Of the number that is

Hon
Members, I thank you all. All Hon
Members who prepared to contribute to
the Message on the State of the Nation,
we will conclude the debate by
tomorrow. Tomorrow will be dedicated
to only the Leaders, the Hon Minority
Leader and the Hon Majority Leader
would conclude the debate on the
Message on the State of the Nation.
In fact, this year, we have given a lot
of opportunities to Hon Members. We
have given about 60 of our Hon
Members of Parliament the opportunity
to contribute to this particular debate on
the Message on the State of the Nation. I
think we have done a lot and I thank all
Hon Members.
We would take the last item. Please let
us turn to the item numbered 7 in today's Order Paper. I would take this particular
Statement because it is a Statement of
time. There are two of them. In fact, the
Committee on Youth, Sports and Culture
brought one as a group and the Hon
Member of Parliament for Ada
Constituency where our fallen member
hails from also made a Statement and
they are all the same.
So, I would take the Statement from
the Committee, after which I would
invite the Hon Member for Ada

Message on the State of the Nation, 2023

Constituency to contribute before I give

the floor to Hon Members.

So, Mr Woyome, you may please read

your Statement after which Ms Comfort

Doyoe would make her contribution

before I open the floor to Hon Members.

Very
well. Let me listen to the Hon Member
for Ada, Ms Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe.
A Brief Eulogy in Memory of
Christian Atsu Twasam

Thank you, Mr Speaker for the
opportunity.
I beg to give a brief eulogy in memory
of Christian Atsu Twasam, the former
Black Stars player who passed away as a
result of an earth tremor in Turkey.
Mr Speaker, the icy hands of death has
struck again. It has deprived the whole of
Ghana, Africa and the rest of the world,
especially, the football fraternity of a
great legend of the game. It has most
especially deprived the whole of Ada
state, home and abroad bragging rights
of a representative in the world of
football. A terrible storm has swept our
state of one of our most illustrious
legends. It has taken away our son and
brother, Christian Atsu Twasam. The
most treasured oak tree of Ada and
Ghana has fallen and we have been
robbed of the shade it provides,
especially as a source of motivation for
the youth.
Christian Atsu has been a great source
of inspiration to the youth especially the
youth of Ada. Apart from being a great
footballer, he is known also for his
philanthropic activities and for his
compassion for humanity. It would be in
the right place, therefore, to honour his
memory with a statue and sports
complex in his hometown, Ada.
I therefore, use this opportunity to call
on all and sundry, whose wish it is to
preserve the memory of our legend to
come to Ada and make that happen. I
take this opportunity too to express my
sincere condolences to the family, his
wife and children and the entire Ada
state and to the football fraternity. May
his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.
Atsu, okꜫ nyꜫꜫmi saminya. Yawↄ ngꜫ hejↄ mimi.
I thank you, Mr Speaker for the
opportunity.

Very
well. I would take two contributions
including Leadership. So, Hon Members
for Dormaa East and Sege. Then I would
come to Hon Member for Bortianor-
Ngleshie-Amanfro. I am sorry if you got
up and I am unable to call you. I am tired;
I have to confess, I am tired, and The
Clerk-at-the-Table have even come to
me that they are tired, so the
contributions should also be snappy.
Mr Paul Apreku Twum-Barimah
(NPP — Dormaa East): Mr Speaker,
we can see you are tired. You have done
really well. May you live long, Mr
Speaker.
Let me thank the makers of the
Statement and also join them to
commiserate with our brother Atsu and
his family. Clearly, Ghana has lost a
gem. When Atsu was part of our national

Statements

team, he gave us hope anytime he was in

our games. We were always anxious to

see Atsu get the ball, because we had the

hope that immediately he is on the ball,

something good would come out of it.

Unfortunately, as the maker of the

Statement said, the icy hands of death

has taken that talent away from us.

Mr Speaker, as we mourn with the

family and our brother, permit me to

focus on an aspect of the Statement that

the two Makers of the Statements have

highlighted, and with your permission, I

beg to quote:

Mr Speaker, not only was Atsu an

excellent player, he was a devout

Christian who shared Bible verses on

social media. He lived a true life as he

was active in charity work such as a

school building project for orphans at

Senya Beraku… paid bail money to free Ghanaians.

Mr Speaker, our brother was not in the

country, but we felt his presence. That is

an aspect that I would like all of us to

pick. It does not matter where we find

ourselves. We need to brighten the

corner wherever we are. Our brother was

a footballer far away in Turkey, but the

people of Nsawam, Ada, and Senya

Breku were having benefits from his toil.

That is what we all need to do. It is about

time that we showed that we are patriotic

citizens of our country regardless of

where we find ourselves. We need to

contribute our little quota in building this

nation. It is not about NPP or NDC. I am

sure there are a lot of people that Atsu

may not have seen before. He did not

know them, but they have benefited from

his handiwork. That is what I think we all

must emulate from him, and as the local

adage says, ye nyinaa wo beebi ko, to

wit, “we all have somewhere to go”, but when we are out of this place, what

would people say about us? Would they

stand tall and say that we made an

impact? Would they stand tall and say

we brought some difference in our

places? Would we have made the change

that was expected of us?

Mr Speaker, with this, I would also

join my Hon Colleagues to say that

something must be done for him.

Something must be established to

remember him, but not a complex in

Ada. It should be somewhere we can all

enjoy, so that we would all see that our

brother was with us. I thank the makers

of the Statements, and may his soul rest

in perfect peace.

Mr Speaker, I thank you.

Hon
Member, I thank you too.
Yes, Hon Member for Sege?
Mr Christian Corletey Otuteye
(NDC — Sege): Mr Speaker, I thank you
for the opportunity to contribute to the
Statement to eulogise Christian Atsu,
who is a namesake and also my
constituent. Christian Atsu, who was a

Statements

professional footballer, was born in a

community called Dogobom in Sege

Constituency. This was a young man

who was very much liked by the

community, and even in his effort to help

the community and beyond, he and I

brought water to a community which

never had water. This is a sign that he

started from home, and beyond that, too,

I heard so many other things he did, such

as going to prisons to bail out people who

were not able to pay their fines for them

to come out. He supported a lot of

orphanages and a lot of youth who were

interested in becoming heroes just like

him. These are all signs that he was not a

selfish person. Atsu was a great man. He

really was a good man. He used his

wealth to support everybody who was in

need in his lifetime. I can say that Atsu's life example is something you and I

should emulate today.

Mr Speaker, the manner in which he

lost his life clearly tells us that tomorrow

is not assured, and I would like to say

that we have to really learn something

from this, for which if it had to do with

money or talent, he should not have been

the one, rather you and I.

Mr Speaker, the great hero was liked

by everybody due to the fantastic manner

in which he played his football and his

social life. So, I urge that if we could do

something monumental in his hometown

to serve as a living memory for Christian

Atsu, his family, and all Ghanaians, that

would be very great. Mr Speaker, I put

this appeal before you, so that the

Committee on Youth, Sports and Culture

would consider what we could do in

Dogobom, the community which he

came from. We buried his mother some

three weeks ago in the same area, which

shows that he comes from my

Constituency, and I appeal to Parliament

as a whole to think of something monumental

in his village.

Mr Speaker, for the sake of time, I

would thank you for the opportunity to

add my voice to eulogise our hero who is

no more.

Mr
Speaker, on this very solemn moment, I
would like to make a contribution in
commiserating with the family of the
former Black Stars player, the national
star, Christian Atsu. I can relate because
I hail from Old Ningo, and of course, he
was a Dangme brother. I first got to
know that Christian Atsu was indeed a
Dangme when he posted a video of
where he hailed from on social media,
and that really got me teary because by
his name, we all thought he was a
gentleman from the Volta Region until
he did a video of himself to say that he
was from Ada. That tells us that he was
not ashamed of his roots.
Mr Speaker, beyond that Christian
Atsu has contributed his quota to our
national teams and, of course, to sports
development in this country. Little did
we know that Christian Atsu had
different sides, and that he was a
philanthropist. Ghanaians did not know.
Many people of influence, anytime they

Statements

want to help society, tend to use the

media to showcase whatever they do for

humanity, but Christian Atsu did so in

private. It was upon his demise that

majority of Ghanaians got to know of his

humanitarian nature.

Mr Speaker, I would like to speak

about the earthquake in Turkey. I

chanced on a report from the National

Disaster Management Organisation

(NADMO) of our country, which stated

that in 1930, a similar incident occurred

in Turkey, and a year later, we had a

similar event in Ghana. If this is anything

to go by, it is a reminder for our country

that we must do everything possible to

avert a similar situation in Ghana. If it is

a situation we cannot help, we should not

take our preparedness in terms of rescue

missions for granted. I would like to add

my voice to that of our Hon Colleagues

from the Dangme land that something

monumental should be done in memory

of Christian Atsu, not because he has

been the best footballer of all time, but

indeed, the circumstances under which

he lost his life has left a very bad memory

on all of us.

Mr Speaker, the life of Atsu will

continue to be a lesson for many young

footballers. I have encountered a number

of former professional footballers who

had encounters with Christian Atsu, who

recounted how respectful, obedient and

serious he was with his profession as a

professional footballer. Many young

Ghanaian people who aspire to be like

Christian Atsu must listen to the many

tributes paid to his memory, and let us

learn from that.

Mr Speaker, I would like to emphasise

for the last time that the entire Dangme

land — if it has to be at Prampram, where we already have the Ghanaman Soccer

Centre of Excellence, a monument or an

improvement would be done on that

facility to the memory —or it should be named after Christian Atsu.

Mr Speaker, I request that Ghanaman

Soccer Centre of Excellence in

Prampram should be named after

Christian Atsu. That would be a very

good memory for all of us.

Mr Speaker, I thank you for the

opportunity.

Hon
Member, thank you very much.

Deputy Minority Leader (Mr

Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah): Mr

Speaker, I would like to briefly thank the

makers of the Statements on our late

brother, Christian Atsu.

Mr Speaker, I would like to recall

Christian Atsu's very important role as a footballer, especially, his contribution to

our national team, the Black Stars. We

all recall how accurate Atsu's passes were from the seventh position. I am a

footballer myself, so I know how passes

are from the seventh position, even

though I am a very old footballer.

Statements

Mr Speaker, we are always very

confident when he played a penalty as

well. His role and how he excited the

whole country cannot be forgotten at all.

Mr Speaker, more than anything, we

learnt that he was philanthropic, — the role he played in his community, and the

support he gave. More than anything, he

was also a family man. I was really

struck by a video I saw on social media

where he played with his two boys. It

would bring tears to your eyes to see that

these young kids would not grow up with

their father. On occasions like this, we

pray for God's strength for the family, his wife and the kids to grow up.

Mr Speaker, more than anything, we

have to also console the people of

Turkey on this tragic earthquake that

took so many lives. In doing so, we must

also learn lessons from what happened

there. How prepared are we as a country

when it comes to earthquakes? We know

that Accra has some locations that are

prone to earthquakes. We have had earth

tremors on daily basis. I know for

example that as part of the post-

earthquake effort in Turkey, there have

been investigations and structural

integrity of buildings and other things are

being done. People are even being

prosecuted, and we must get to that point

in this country where we learn all those

lessons, and make sure that we can really

prepare, and that buildings in our country

must be built in a way that would

withstand such tragedies. How prepared

are we? I think that these are clear

lessons for us as a country.

Mr Speaker, I think time is far spent,

but I could only say that we pray and

honour the contribution of Christian

Atsu. We pray that God keeps his soul.

Mr Speaker, I thank you for the

opportunity.

Thank
you to the makers of the Statements and
all the contributors. We are grateful to
you.
Hon Members, I am grateful to you all
for your cooperation. We would bring
proceedings to a close.