Luxurious aircraft: Think about the benefit, not just the cost – Kennedy Agyapong replies Ablakwa

• Kennedy Agyapong has justified the the used of the £15,000-per-hour aircraft by President Akufo-Addo

• He wants Ablakwa to focus on the benefit the country derived from the president’s trip

Kennedy Agyapong, the Member of Parliament for Assin Central has charged the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, to do a comparative analysis of the cost and benefit of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s recent trip to France.

Okudzeto has been incensed over what he holds to be a display of profligacy by President Akufo-Addo regarding the hiring of a £15,000-per-hour craft used for the trip.

Okudzeto Ablakwa has in several media engagement lamented the president’s seeming preference for luxurious things at a time when the nation is grappling with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Per Flightradar24, the G-KELT aircraft left Accra with the president to Paris on the 16th of May — a 6 and half-hour duration. Airlifted the president from Paris to Johannesburg for 11 hours on the 23rd of May.

“Then Johannesburg to Accra on May 25, was a five and half hour flight. This gives us accumulated flight travel of 23 hours, so at £15,000 an hour, it thus cost us a colossal £345,000. At the current exchange, that is a staggering ¢2,828,432.80.”

According to him, “President Akufo-Addo [who] has been a leading voice for debt forgiveness in the international arena has been imposing additional regressive taxes back home with the justification that the economy isn’t in a good shape.”

But in an interview with a radio station based in the United States, Kennedy Agyapong said that Ablakwa must consider the benefit the nation derived from President Akufo-Addo’s trip.

According to him, the advantages Ghana enjoyed from the trip outweigh the demerit which in his wisdom seems to be the focus of Ablakwa’s outburst.

“Okudzeto claims Akufo-Addo spent $500,000 on his trip. Have you asked him the benefit the trip had for Ghana? Did he go for [a] check-up? For a whole member of parliament to tell us that the president travelled and incurred losses is disappointing,” he said.

He added, “the first speech Akufo-Addo gave, he got $195,0000 million. Deduct $500,000 from that amount and ask yourself, how does it work it? Nobody is advancing that argument but we are talking about costs so it should be about expenditure versus revenue. The man spent $500,000 a trip and got $195,0000 million. He also managed to get Ghana as [a] vaccines centre in the whole [of] Africa. Do you know the number of employment he is going to create? Have you asked him?”