Information Minister, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, has stated that Ghana is rising again on the global stage after its fortunes dwindled to alarming proportion under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2016.
He noted that Ghana, which around 1957 was the beacon of hope and leadership for Africa suffered image crises that by the year 2016, it had become virtually a beggar nation with dwindling hopes, foreign direct investment and a poor tourist destination.
According to him, Ghana no longer looked a nation that was capable of managing its own affairs and had gone to the IMF cap in hand begging for a bailout.
The Minister stated these when he moved the motion for the House to thank the President for the Message of the State of the Nation, which he delivered in Parliament on Thursday 20th February 2020.
He pointed out that through the use of clearly thought-out vision by the Akufo-Addo administration in the last three years, however, Ghana has reclaimed its lost image in the comity of nations and has once more assumed its leadership role.
He argued that President Akufo-Addo achieved such feat in his short term in office by pursuing three important leads which comprised formulating a vision, selling that vision and backing the vision with extraordinary leadership and policies.
He noted that the President’s Ghana beyond Aid vision is to build an optimistic self-confident and prosperous nation through the creative exploitation of the country’s human and natural resources and operating within a democratic and fair society in which mutual trust and economic opportunity exist for all.
“It is this vision that has been successfully sold and implemented for which reason we are resuming our pride of place all over the world,” he stated
“These are rhetoric matters but it has not been just empty rhetoric but has been backed by the improved macro-economic environment and a bright investment horizon for which reason today the foreign investments we were losing are now coming back.”
“We claimed our place as the highest recipient of foreign direct investment in West Africa in 2018,” he stated.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah issued a terse admonishing to the Minority NDC in Parliament never to walk out on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo again.
The Minority, he said, caused a drama in the midst of a serious Parliamentary business that caught the attention of the public.
He cautioned the Minority to avoid such exercise in the future and never to conduct Parliamentary business in a manner that puts the decorum and authority of the House into disrepute.
He argued that President Akufo-Addo appeared before Parliament to fulfill a constitutional obligation and the Minority had a responsibility to sit in and hear him deliver this important message.
Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah who seconded the motion, in his contribution noted that the Akufo-Addo government has stabilized the economy, which has led international rating agencies to give it a positive outlook.
According to him, the economy, which was stuttering under the NDC in 2016 and rated poorly by these agencies has recovered and receiving positive ratings from Standard and Poors and Moody’s who have all given it a positive outlook.
Mr. Assibey-Yeboah argued improvement in the exchange rate has also made it unprofitable to hold into the dollar because the cedi has consistently gained strength.
The cedi’s performance, he said, has been so remarkable that it has become the best performing currency in the world, a testimony to what President Akufo-Addo and the NPP have been done and are doing.
In a related development, the Minority has pulled out from the debate on the state of the nation address.
Minority chief whip, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, informed the House his side has taken a decision not to participate in the debate.
This generated catcalls from the Majority who questioned why they entered the chamber.
Readers would recall the Minority boycotted the state of the nation address last Thursday and walked out of the chamber just when the President was about to deliver his message
