Mr. Benjamin Kofi Quashie, the South African Council of Elders Chairman of the National Democratic Congress and the Group Chairman of Allied Consortiums has berated those who are criticizing the True State of the Nation Address as a “political gimmick”.
He describes such attitude from their critics as baffling and out of place because what the chairman of the NDC did was to elaborate on each aspect of our economy.
Speaking on CTV Tuesday, 21st March 2023 and sharing his views on the True State of the Nation Address as presented by the National Chairman of the NDC, he echoed the fact that, the address touched on every fibre of our economy. "Things are really hard. Unemployment is on the high, and those are the realities of our time”, he noted.
According to the SA Council Chair, in reference to the financial sectors, "Most competent areas of our economy are crumbling all in the name of debt restructuring. For the first time in the history of Ghana, the international rating agencies have declared Ghana as “junk and bankrupt" and what is political about this if the NDC Chairman repeats same in his address? he asked.
He further asserted that, for rating agencies to describe our economy as “junk and bankrupt” speaks volumes about our country but, when our President spoke, he never made mention of that.
Again, the 2021 Population and Housing Census, shows that youth unemployment is on high ascendancy. "The Bank of Ghana has gone on a spree of printing money; something that has not happened in the history of the Republic", and all these go to show that our country is in dire challenges.
He continued that the whole economy is in shambles and from the State of the Nation Address, as given by the president, it appears either the President is out of touch with reality or his advisers did him a disservice.
From the narrations given by Chairman Asiedu Nketia, no one can defend the government. "From the point General Asiedu Nketia gave, it would be difficult for any NPP member to even try to defend this. “You can't defend a government that is going through difficulties and refusing to tell the citizenry", he ended.