The Minority in Parliament has once again called out President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for travelling outside the country with a private jet.
President Akufo-Addo on Thursday left Ghana for a 10-day five-nation trip to Europe.
But according to the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa who is also the Minority’s Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, the President’s latest travel is the height of insensitivity to the suffering of the citizens at the time, the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy is being rejected.
In a media engagement in Parliament on Friday, Mr. Ablakwa claimed that the President’s ongoing trip amounts to GH¢14,000 per hour, totalling almost GH¢5 million and must not be tolerated by Ghanaians.
“This latest conduct of the President happened at a time, thousands of Ghanaians were out there on the streets demonstrating against regressive, obnoxious and dreaded E-levy. We are totally livid that a time the people of this country are saying enough is enough [that is the time the president decides to travel abroad]…Many Ghanaians are saying that this is a government that does not like to be accountable, that is profligate and wasteful. We have the millions of Ghana cedis lost in these trips under a president who promised to protect the public purse, and now we cannot even see the purse at all.”
But the Deputy Majority Leader and the MP for Effutu, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, says the concerns raised by his colleague MP are unnecessary.
“This is rather essential to trouble this argument of means of travel. We as a country must also be bold and address it. Democracy will require institutional pillars and resources to build what we call a workable democracy, so if an MP says why [will the President travel] but use that money for something else, it really won’t add up. We must agree that certain structures must be in place. So I won’t question anybody demanding accountability or asking for a certain line of travel but to create an impression as though the President travelling on an aircraft other than what is procured by the state is insensitive will rather beg the question and I disagree. ”
The North Tongu legislator has in the last year mounted pressure on the government, accusing President Akufo-Addo of wasting taxpayers’ money on luxurious private jets for his trips abroad.
Efforts by Mr. Ablakwa to get government officials to reveal the cost of President Akufo-Addo’s foreign trips have yielded no positive results.
