President addresses Parliament on Thursday
Accra (Greater Accra) 28 January 2002- President John Agyekum Kufuor would deliver his second State of the Nation Address to Parliament on Thursday, January 31 amid fan-fare, drumming and inspection of guard of honour to be mounted by the
military.
The address would centre on the state of the economy and the government's development policies. This was announced on Friday by the Majority Leader, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, when presenting the Business Statement for the next week.
He said due to the importance of the address to the House, members of Parliament would be allowed three days to thoroughly study it before debate begins on Tuesday, February 5, 2002.
Mr Johnson Aseidu-Nketiah, NDC-Wenchi West, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said he would expect the government to touch on how it was going to achieve Free, Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) within the next two years at the end of which the programme should achieve its constitutional time frame.
The 1992 Constitution states that the FCUBE programme should be achieved within 10 years of coming into force of the Constitution and since it came into operation in 1993 by 2003, it was envisaged that all children of school-going age would benefit from it.
Mr Asiedu-Nketiah said he expects that the President would tell Ghanaians how he was going to scrap the "cash and carry" policy within the health delivery system. He said the NPP government, in pursuit of its policies of "golden age" of business and the creation of wealth, which the President promised the nation, were going to be realised.
"I expect him to touch on how education should be affordable and has become affordable to Ghanaians as his government promised the people during the 2004 electioneering campaign."
Mr Asiedu-Nketiah said he would wish to hear from the President about how the real benefit of Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative was benefiting the country since he said during his tour of the Volta Region recently that the people would feel the result of the initiative within the next three months.
Dr Mustapha Ahmed, NDC-Ayawaso East said he expected the address to be an improvement over that of last year and to depict clearly the government's aim of alleviating the suffering of the people and the package which the government has to support farmers.
Captain Nkrabea Effah-Dartey (Rtd), Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development said the address would be on the consolidation over the achievement during the previous year's activities.
"It would be in the areas on strengthening the controls of government expenditure and in continuing to make the cedi stable against foreign currencies".
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com