The Majority caucus in parliament have come to the rescue of President Akuffo-Addo as many like the minority group in parliament, are purporting that the president has no good news for the country and that’s the reason for rescheduling The State Of The Nation Address(SONA).
Earlier on February 25, 2022, the deputy majority leader; Afenyo Markin had declared to parliament that the president wouldn’t make it for the SONA scheduled for March 5, 2022 and hence a convenient date shall be communicated to members of the house.”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 and since then has drawn several opinions to his revelation.
The Deputy Majority Chief Whip; Habib Iddrisu has while speaking on ‘PM EXPRESS’ on Joy News revealed that, the president has not gone contrary to the constitution as claimed by several others and therefore the law mandates the president to choose a date within a particular range.
“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.
“l 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.
He also emphasized that; “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.”
