Last year’s, like any other generated debate, good and bad, but mostly about questions some journalists asked given the opportunity to quiz the first gentleman of the land, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
This year’s however seems to have landed Mr. Akufo-Addo in ‘hot waters’. Aside the fact that most journalists were disappointed about the fact that the number of questions to be asked at the event were reduced from 70 to just about 16, quite a number of people are also questioning the rationale behind a rather long speech when that could have been shortened to allow space for more questions.
In addition to being described as the ‘worst ever’ in the history of Ghana, Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak says this year’s ‘Meet the Press’ event with President Akufo-Addo was a ‘disaster by every stretch of imagination’.
In a post, Dr. Apaak jabbed the President for having suggested that he preferred investing in the medical drone delivery service than in the ‘guinea fowl’ project as was done by his predecessor, Former President John Dramani Mahama in the infamous Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) project.
“I prefer drones delivery flying to deliver essential medicines to our people than an investment in guinea fowl that allegedly fly out to Burkina Faso without any trace,” President Akufo-Addo said during his encounter with the media Wednesday.
In response however, Mr. Apaak expressed surprise at how Mr. Akufo-Addo could overlook the alleged inflation of cost of ($12 million) of a six-bedroom residence for Ghana’s new mission in Norway and disappearance of fuel and yet be worried about ‘flying birds’.
“Folks! Our President sees nothing wrong with buying a property sold for less than $4 million in 2017 for over $12 million to our nation in 2018! The President sees nothing wrong with fuel disappearing from holding tanks, he is worried about flying birds! Well birds can fly, what of fuel?”, he quizzed.
He is convinced President Akufo-Addo ‘stripped’ himself in a desperate attempt to respond to Former President John Dramani’s comments on government’s acquisition of a medical drones service.
Mr. Mahama, while speaking to supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Monday after he filed his nomination forms to contest the party’s Presidential ticket criticized the government for pushing through with the deal despite opposition from stakeholders in the health sector.
“Instead of prioritizing the needs of the health sector, the NPP government chooses to acquire drones to fly blood, a decision which has been roundly condemned by the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists, he said.
According to Mr. Apaak, the move only gave Ghanaians more reason to vote back John Mahama in the next polls.
“Your encounter with the media was a disaster by every stretch of the imagination. In your rush to indirectly reply the man of the moment, the “come back kid ” JDM, you ended up justifying why Ghanaians will #GO4JM”.
