President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will today, Tuesday March 9, deliver the State of the Nation Address (SONA), in accordance with Article 67 of the Constitution.
Today’s address will be the President’s first State of the Nation Address in his second term.
Article 67 of the Constitution mandates the President to present to Parliament the address at the beginning of each session of the House and before its dissolution.
The President is expected to give an overview of plans for his second term in office.
It is expected to cover areas of national development, including security, economy, agriculture, environment, education and, particularly, health due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the roll-out of the country’s vaccination exercise.
Covid-19 protocols
The Majority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, last week announced that “the address by the President will take place in the tent erected at the forecourt of Parliament.”
He cautioned that the House would not entertain any breach of the coronavirus protocols when the President goes to the house for the presentation.
It emerged last week that the legislative house has recorded 12 more cases of the Covid-19 virus within its enclave.
Most of the cases involved auxiliary members of the House, with a few being Members of Parliament.
These persons tested positive after a coronavirus re-testing exercise was conducted ahead of resumption of parliamentary sitting, following the three-week shutdown due to an earlier outbreak in the House.
Some 550 persons, comprising MPs and parliamentary staff, participated in the re-testing exercise, out of which 12 tested positive.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, disclosed that “the retesting revealed that out of a total of 550 MPs and staff who retested, only 12 tested positive and are currently in isolation. Majority of them were the auxiliary staff. This represents a positivity rate of 2 percent as compared to the national positivity rate of between 10-12 per cent.”
