Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has described the President’s failure to recognize the Chief Justice and former President Kufour in his salutation during his 3rd State of the Nation’s address as a mistake.
According to him, it was a genuine mistake and there is the need for the government to render an unqualified apology to the Chief Justice and former President Kufuor.
In the salutation of his State of the Nation’s address in Parliament on Thursday, the president read “Madam Speaker, Vice President, Honourable Members of the House …”, palpably ignoring the presence of the Chief Justice who was seated right next to him and former President Kufuor who was also present at the occasion.
Reacting to the issue on Adom FM’s midday news, Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa explained that President Mills has no issue with the Chief Justice adding that that there is no speech maker in the world who gets everything right.
He added that the President acknowledges the Chief Justice at any event he attends: “The President has been addressing several events that the Chief Justice has been there and he has acknowledged [her] and I don’t think it will be fair to make it an issue”.
In response to why former President Kufuor was also not recognized, Okudzeto Ablakwa noted that President Mills was not aware former President Kufuor was in the public gallery.
He questioned why this has been made an issue when the real focus should be on the failure of the leadership of the minority in parliament to accompany the President out of the chamber, stressing that “for the first time in this country’s history, the minority leadership in parliament did not accompany the President out of the chamber.”