Why Akufo-Addo has still not delivered SONA – Deputy Majority Chief Whip

The Majority group in Parliament has justified the delay of the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in delivering the 2022 State of the Nation Address (SONA).

According to the group, the president is still within the remit of the law despite the continuous rescheduling of the address.

Speaking on ‘PM Express’ programme on the Accra-based Joy News channel, the Deputy Majority Chief Whip, Habib Iddrisu explained that the constitution mandates that the president delivers SONA between the beginning and dissolution of a session of Parliament.

He stressed that the President has not gone contrary to the provisions of the Constitution.

“The President is within the law. If you look at the Constitution in Article 67, it says the president shall at the beginning of each session of Parliament and before the dissolution of Parliament.

“It is not the fact that the president has breached any Constitutional provisions in terms of the delivery of the State of the Nation address. I like to put it on record that I am the chairman of the President’s State of the Nation Address committee in Parliament.

“I chair that committee. The last time that we had a meeting, we had agreed that the President was going to deliver the State of the Nations Address on the 3rd of March but due to further consultations, we realized that the 6th March which is the Independence Day of Ghana was also of a very important day to the Republic.

“So doing a state of the nation address or the message on the state of the nations on the 3rd [of March] and then on the 6th [of March] also doing the 6th March was something which was not good,” Mr. Habib Iddrisu said.

The Tolon MP stated that “when the President deems it fit and within the law, he will address the nation”.

He added that the committee that he chairs was however working to ready all stakeholders for the SONA.

“We should not make it look like or try to argue that it is outside the parameters of the law. It is still within the law. The beginning of the session to the dissolution of Parliament. So at any time the President can come and address the nation. For the fact that it has been done earlier in previous State of the Nation doesn’t mean that if this one comes on a later date, it is against the law,” he emphasized.

Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin on Friday, February 25 told Parliament that the President will no longer be in the House on Thursday, March 3 to deliver the SONA as earlier advertised.

“This indicative date has, however, been put on ice by us and we would duly communicate a new date to the House after we have engaged the presidency,” the Effutu MP stated.