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President John Dramani Mahama

The essence of the State of the Nation Address

In line with the constitutional mandate, President John Dramani Mahama will deliver the State of the Nation Address to Parliament today.

This is in accordance with Article 67 of the Constitution which stipulates that “The President shall, at the beginning of each session of Parliament and before the dissolution of Parliament, deliver to Parliament a message on the state of the nation”.

The rationale behind a State of the Nation Address is to offer the President the platform to give a report on the condition of the nation and also outline initiatives that the government is implementing to address the various challenges confronting the country.

In 2015, the erratic power supply, what became known as dumsor dominated the President’s address.

One of the key points of that address was President Mahama’s promise to fix the energy crisis. Perhaps this quote sums up his optimism: “I do not intend to manage the situation as has been done in the past. I intend to fix it! I owe it to the Ghanaian people.”

Although the dumsor challenge has not completely ended, there has been significant improvement since the President made that promise.

People now enjoy much longer hours of electricity supply as compared to the days when the load shedding was at its peak.

Today’s address is very significant for two reasons.

First, the general election is less than nine months away and whatever the President says will be seen as an account of his stewardship since he was elected in 2012.

Secondly, this could possibly be the last state of the nation address by the first gentleman of the land or preparations towards the renewal of his mandate at the polls. Also business operators expect the president to respond to their concerns to do something about the high tariffs of power and water, as well as high taxes.

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