The Minority in Parliament on Thursday dramatically boycotted this year’s State Of The Nation Address [SONA] without giving any ‘tangible’ reason.
The Minority organised a press conference addressed by the Minority Leader, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu in Parliament to explain their action.
According to them since becoming President of our republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has conducted the affairs of state with the kind of "tyranny, despotism and authoritarianism" that frightens many objective observers.
"We have in the face of extreme provocation exercised restraint and urged the president to depart from his perilous path that puts the democracy of our country at great risk.
"Sadly, matters are totally out of control. The democracy we all toiled and sacrificed to establish is now threatened by the highhandedness of President Akufo-Addo. The man who in opposition styled himself as a champion democrat has turned out to be a nightmare and an existential threat to our fledgling democracy.
"We continue to witness heightened impunity from officialdom," a part of the statement said.
Watch their walk out below
Read below their full statement
STATEMENT BY MINORITY ON THE WALKOUT AT TODAY'S STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS AS ADDRESSED BY MINORITY LEADER, HON. HARUNA IDDRISU IN PARLIAMENT
We duly welcome you to this press briefing and thank you for your continuous indulgence and dedicated contributions to free expression in Ghana.
We, constituting the Minority in Ghana's Parliament have convened this press interaction to put forth the reasons for staging a walkout on the day the president was expected to deliver a message on the state of the nation as required by Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.
From the outset, we need to make clear that these are not normal times in the democratic trajectory of our country.
We are clad in black today to mourn the fascist and authoritarian tendencies that have conspired to threaten the health of Ghana's democracy.
Since becoming President of our republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has conducted the affairs of state with the kind of tyranny, despotism and authoritarianism that frightens many objective observers.
We have in the face of extreme provocation exercised restraint and urged the president to depart from his perilous path that puts the democracy of our country at great risk.
Sadly, matters are totally out of control. The democracy we all toiled and sacrificed to establish is now threatened by the highhandedness of President Akufo-Addo. The man who in opposition styled himself as a champion democrat has turned out to be a nightmare and an existential threat to our fledgling democracy.
We continue to witness heightened impunity from officialdom.
As we speak, the President has refused to implement the recommendations of the Emile Short Commission following the state sponsored terrorism that occurred during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election in January 2019. The President continues to shield his indicted appointees as he even confers on them more authority to perpetrate mayhem ahead of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Contrary to the Emile Short Commission recommendation, President Akufo-Addo has blatantly refused to disband the illegal SWAT team which has been populated by known hoodlums belonging to his vigilante groups.
Many more of these blood thirsty hoodlums continue to be trained at national security installations and are being armed ahead of the 2020 elections.
President Akufo-Addo goes down in history as the only President in the Fourth Republic to supervise the cruel removal of Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Madam Charlotte Osei. That conduct in infamy appears to have paved the way for an elaborate scheme to rig the 2020 elections by compiling a new Voters Register. Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu let the cat out of the bag when he stated emphatically that if the NPP was successful in compiling a new Voters Register, the NDC will never come back to power. One wonders how a register that brought the NDC to power in 2012 and the NPP to power in 2016 can suddenly become so discredited in the eyes of the NPP if not for the sinister agenda exposed inadvertently by the Majority Leader.
The Akufo-Addo-led Government in cahoots with the Jean Mensah-led Electoral Commission remains intransigent despite overwhelming public opposition including from a strong coalition of Civil Society Organisations and Political Parties. We cannot help but agree with the US State Department Human Rights report which has raised concerns of possible voter suppression in opposition strongholds as the real intention for the needless and wasteful new Voters Register.
Under President Akufo-Addo's watch, media freedoms and free expression have come under unprecedented attack. The Government has still not found the killers of investigative journalist, Ahmed Hussain-Suale who was assassinated in cold blood. Despite demands from the international community for action, he refuses to speak to the matter and no updates on investigations have been provided. Many journalists continue to be attacked, with others having to seek refuge outside the jurisdiction.
His Government continues to close down Radio stations particularly those with affiliation to his political opponents. Only last week, his administration after the Gestapo closures of Radio Gold and Radio XYZ, and many others, closed down Radio Tongu and Fox FM, Takoradi in the most bizarre of circumstances.
The growing culture of impunity and the tyranny that has reached alarming proportions was once again on the prowl when agents of National Security demolished businesses belonging to Ghanaians in the private sector located at the Ghana Trade Fair Site at dawn under the cover of darkness. Not even notice was served on the owners to take out their valuables ahead of the barbaric demolition. We are not in any doubt that the cruel nature of the demolishing which has been justified by the President's appointees and spokespersons was targeted at former award winning journalist, Raymond Archer who many in this administration have not forgiven for his incisive and explosive investigative pieces of yesteryears.
As noted, these are not normal times. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Our tradition is credited for laying the foundations for this Fourth Republican dispensation. It is our moral duty to the Constitution we swore to protect and the people we serve in this House to rise and resist oppressor's rule - in that enduring and rallying call of our national anthem.
Our walkout was therefore a bold protest against tyranny and to send a very clear message directly to President Akufo-Addo that enough is enough. We shall no longer accept the growing levels of impunity and unconstitutionalism masked by duplicitous and hollow rhetoric.
Ghana belongs to all of us and so shall we all stand to defend the democracy we have all laboured for. Like Thomas Jefferson, we declare: "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
Thank you for your attention.
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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THE BOYCOTT OF MINORITY IN PARLIAMENT SHOULD NOT SURPRISE ANYBODY. IT WAS MEANT TO DIVERT ATTENTION FROM THE SHAME OF MAHAMA. IT IS ALL BECAUSE OF THE AIRBUS SCANDAL. MAHAMA IS DISTINCTIVELY SUGGESTED TO BE THE GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL ONE OF THE SCANDAL AND HIS BROTHER AS INTERMEDIARY 5. EVER SINCE THE SCANDAL BROKE OUT MAHAMA HAS FAILED TO DENY IT. SINCE SILENCE MEANS CONSENT MANY BELIEVE STRONGLY THAT MAHAMA IS THE OFFICIAL 1 WHO CONNIVED WITH OTHERS TO STEALL FROM THE STATE OF GHANA. MANY IN GHANA AND OUTSIDE AS WELL AS MEMBERS OF DIPLOMATIC CORPS SHARE SIMILAR VIEW ABOUT MAHAMA. THE SHAME OF THE AIRBUS SCANDAL MADE IT DIFFICULT FOR MAHAMA TO ATTEND SONA AND SIT WITH OTHER FORMER PRESIDENTS. THE DECISION OF MAHAMA NOT TO ATTEND SONA WAS TO CAUSE A TALK IN TOWN. PEOPLE WOULD HAVE ASKED WHY HE DID NOT COME AND SPECULATED. TO DIVERT ATTENTION ON THE ON MAHAMA AND THE AIBUS SCANDAL MATTER. THE NDC MPs WALK OUT ON FLIMSY EXCUSES WAS ONLY MEANT FOR DIVERSION. MAHAMA RECENT ATTACK ON EC SUPPORTED BY NDC AND THEIR BOYCOTT OF SONA ARE ALL MEANT TO DIVERT ATTENTION FROM THE AIRBUS SCANDAL.
had it been in the USA, all of them will be voted out by their communities. That is the reason why it happened in Ghana because 99% of the people in their constituencies cannot read or write and they think they don't even have a right.
This is Gross immaturity, and they will pay very dearly for this at the polls.
We have Akufo-Addo's "Tyranny, Despotism And Authoritarianism" Rule Made Us Walk Out! - Minority e in the face of extreme provocation exercised restraint and urged the president to depart from his perilous path that puts the democracy of our country at great risk. Sadly, matters are totally out of control. The democracy we all toiled and sacrificed to establish is now threatened by the highhandedness of President Akufo-Addo. The man who in opposition styled himself as a champion democrat has turned out to be a nightmare and an existential threat to our fledgling democracy.
they keep using words like despot, authoritarian, dictator etc to describe the president and yet they can't give instances where the president has been any of these, what is more dictatorial than an opposition which insists that its opinion should hold sway else there will be chaos? if Nana Addo were any of the things you have said, you wouldn't have had three peaceful demonstrations and gone home to sleep with your wives and girlfriends. we remember how teachers were whipped like children in this country when they went on demonstrations, how fishermen were equally whipped for the same thing, as for the then opposition, they were treated like aliens in this country, when a sitting member of parliament was beaten up by the goons of the ndc, the interior minister told us violence begat violence, not even a chicken was brought to book. does the ndc know dictatorship and authoritarian rule? they are a ***barred word*** breed of opportunists. after your double salaries, you are still walking free, i don't blame you.
SCHOOL BOYS
***barred word*** buffoonss I sometimes pity the people that support these cr1minals nation wreckers brigade, uselesss ndc gradually they are making themselves irrelevant in our political discourse. The beginning of the demise of a ones a political evil empire, ndc never again
How i wish NDC will repeat same on 7th Dec. by boycotting the election... i think my dream is coming to pass.
IT WAS POLITICAL BLUNDER FOR NDC TO VACATE THEIR SEATS DURING SONA IN THE PRESENCE OF FORMER PRESIDENTS, CHIEF JUSTICE AND SUPERIOR COURT JUDGES, POLICE AND MILITARY TOP HIERARCHY, DIPLOMATIC CORPS, NANANOM, RELIGIOUS LEADERS,THE MEDIA AND REPRESENTATIVES OF VARIOUS GROUPINGS. IT PORTRAY NDC TO ALL THESE PEOPLE GATHERED AS A PARTY OF INDISCIPLINED MPS AND INDIVIDUALS. NDC CAN WALK OUT AT ANY TIME BUT NOT IN THE PRESENCE TO ALL THOSE PEOPLE. THEY HAVE SHOWN THEMSELVES TO ALL AS UNREASONABLEEE, IMATUREEE AND DISRESPECTFULL TO GHNANA AND ALL GATHERED. I DON'T KNOW WHO ADVISES NDC THEY ARE MAKING THEIR PARTY UNPOPULAR TO ALL RIGHT THINKING PEOPLE. NPP WILL NEVER DO THIS. THEY CAN BE ANGRY AS WELL BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS GET ONE WISEMAN TO ADVISE THEM TO AVOID COMMUTING SUCH A BLUNDERR. NONE OF THE DIGNITARIES WHO GATHERED AT PARLIAMENT WILL TAKE NDC SERIOUS. SPIRITUALLY IT IS A BAD OMEN FOR NDC TO VACATE THEIRS SEAT. SMART AS THEY WERE, NPP QUICKLY TOOK OVER THE SEAT. SO NPP OCCUPIED BOTH MAJORITY AND MINORITY SIDES. NDC HAS SPIRITUALLY RELINQUISHED THEIR SEATS TO THE NPP MAJORITY AS WELL. NPP WILL GET MORE OF THEIR SEAT IN THE NEXT ELECTIONS. THIS MEANS EITHER NDC MAY LOOSE MORE SEATS TO NPP OR NDC MAY BOYCOTT THE 2020 ELECTION. WHATERVER THE CASE NPP WILL GET MORE SEAT AFTER 2020 ELECTIONS. AND JUST AS SONA WAS DELIVERED SMOOTHLY AND UNDISTURBED THIS TIME, SO NPP WILL GOVERN AFTER 2020 ELECTIONS SMOOTHLY AND UNDISTURBED, EVEN IF NDC BOYCOTT THE ELECTIONS. ANOTHER BAD OMEN IS THE MISSING OF MAHAMA AT THE SONA. IT MEANS MAHAMA WILL BE INCARCERATED AND DISAPPEAR IN PUBLIC IN SOME DAYS AHEAD. THE EVENTS OF THE SONA CASTS SHADOW FOR THE UNFOLDING POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
Go, go, go. After all your contribution to nation building is stealing of its resources. NDC would be in opposition for a long time to come.