State of the Nation addresses are best known for being glorified political events. They are crafted and designed to accord sitting Presidents rare opportunities to engage in self adulation, endless hyperbole and needless praise singing before an audience of hifalutin elites and salt of the earth ordinary folks.
In short, SONAS as the acronym or abbreviation goes, are purely exercises in mendacity —- the wholesome peddling of falsehoods.
Typically, lame-duck Presidents use state of the nation addresses to go through a litany of half-baked truths and obfuscations, all designed to please their base of vociferous supporters.
Where the economy is old, sputtering and lack-luster, Presidents contend it is clicking on all cylinders.
Where the education sector suffers from inadequate financing, shabby infrastructure and overcrowding, they maintain with a straight face that the sector is vibrant, alive and well and on course to be the best ever. SONAS, if you ask me, are shams; they are elaborate carnival shows and nothing more.
We have seen the above scenario play out over the years and yesterday was not vastly different. President Nana Akuffo Dankwa Addo was his usual laborious and tedious self, reading from a prepared script and going on for well over two hours.
He, as was much expected, took credit for almost everything that he claimed had been accomplished under his watch, from the peace treaty in Dagbon, to a rebounding economy manifested by a resurgence in the agricultural and business sectors.
While Mr. Addo touts his horn to the excitement of his supporters and to the utter dismay of his political enemies, Ghanaians continue to suffer financial indignities.
The economy is still stuck in neutral and nothing the President says nor the fancy financial numbers he liberally quotes, will be enough to appease his long suffering country men and women or minimize their pain.
The one area where many expected the President to demonstrate strong leadership and total commitment was national security particularly as it relates to political vigilantism.
With recent bouts of dreadful violence still fresh in the public conscience, the hope was that Mr. Addo will use his address to the nation to ban political vigilantism once and for all.
But sadly, the President yet again, for the umpteenth time, kicked the ball down the road, a revisit of last year’s SONA performance.
Honestly, Mr. Addo, with the stroke of a pen would have put many minds at ease. It is called executive action in the language of governance.
It is widely used in emergencies and we have an emergency on our doorsteps —ugly political vigilantism. He could simply have signed the vicious political vigilante groups out of existence.
Single-handedly, Mr. Addo could have put the nation on a hopeful and bright trajectory. Instead, what did he do? He proposed that his party, the NPP meets with the NDC to fashion out a strategy that will effectively put an end to political thuggery.
This hastily concocted arrangement if it comes off at all, won’t produce the desired results for one simple reason; these parties are sworn and mortal enemies; finding common grounds for the public good is not in their books.
The President’s performance was hugely disappointing; his failure to make a firm commitment to the permanent dismantling of vigilante groups, deflated the hopes of millions of Ghanaians who crave to live in peace and harmony with their neighbors political affiliations notwithstanding.
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