A Deputy Information Minister has taken a swipe at critics who have described President John Mills’ third state of the nation address as divisive.
Samuel Okuzdeto Ablakwa minced no words in describing such critics as war mongers. The minority leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu was appalled by what he said was the most partisan, divisive address ever to have been presented by a president of the country.
He made the statement minutes after the president had presented his third state of the nation’s address in Parliament on Thursday. Some of the minority members in Parliament have re-echoed the statement of their leader. Head of Communications at the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akomea rated the president’s performance as 40 percent.
He said the tone of the president’s address sounded more like a political party leader than the president of Ghana who must be father to all. He said the innuendos put out by the president in his address smacked of a political leader at a rally ground. He wondered why the president will reopen investigations into the murders of women in the country, when those murders occurred under his watch as Vice-President and at a time he was the chairman of the Police Council.
However, deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has rejected claims that the address was divisive. “If you are a war monger, if you are blood thirsty and you want to cause mayhem and chaos it will be divisive to you but if you are a peacemaker and want to live in a decent country where there is total tranquility and we see ourselves as one people and we want to work hard to build a better Ghana, this will be a unifying speech for you,” he said.
Ablakwah maintained that the speech covered a whole gamut of social and economic issues affecting the country.