If Mahama Sees Any Problem, He Should Fix It- Minority Leader

The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, says the responsibility of President John Dramani Mahama is to find solutions to all problems he sees in the country and not to whine about them.

Seconding a motion to have Parliamentary sittings adjourned on Thursday after the State of the Nation Address (SONA), the MP for Effutu Constituency indicated that the mandate given to him by Ghanaians was to fix problems.

From his observation, the address was full of lamentations and complaints about the previous government.

“Mr Speaker, the president again came to this house with a familiar story, the usual lamentations. He packaged it in a language as though we have a new beginning. Mr Speaker, if the president has any concerns, his duty is to fix it.”

According to him, the President has carved a niche for himself as a lamenter.

“On 21st February 2013, you notably said ‘The meat is now down to the bone’. This was on the occasion of your address to Parliament…This was at a time when you were President of Ghana and you had served as chair of the Economic Management Team of your own government yet when you came to this house, you lamented on the same state of the economy that you had presided over and reechoed the point that we left with just the bones.”

Criticising the address as empty, Afenyo-Markin noted that it does not make provision for transformation.

“We are seeing the same old stock. There is nothing new for transformation.”

Also, he faulted the president for shoving all the positives of the previous government.

“What we have heard today fails to acknowledge the strides made in the last eight years. The President failed to acknowledge that he came to meet a stable and peaceful country. The President failed to tell us that he came to meet a public service that the government in spite of the challenges was able to pay consistently. The President failed to tell us that in spite of all the crisis, the Akufo-Addo government was able to consistently increase wages and the minimum we did was 11% as compared to his 10%.”

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini