Akufo-Addo spent £345,000 on Int’l travel in just 10 days
Akufo-Addo spent £345,000 on Int’l travel in just 10 days
Akufo-Addo spent £345,000 on Int’l travel in just 10 days
Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa,
has accused President Nana Akufo-Addo of ostentatious spending
even as the country goes through economic hardship.
Mr Ablakwa said per his personal findings and calculations,
the accumulated cost of flight travel by the President during
his 10-day visit to France, Belgium, South Africa and back to Ghana,
is a whopping £345,000 i.e. GHS2,828,432.80 at current exchange rate.
“Per Flightradar24, the G-KELT aircraft left Accra with the
President to Paris on the 16th of May — a six and half hour duration.
Airlifted the President from Paris to Johannesburg
for 11 hours on the 23rd of May.
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“Then Johannesburg to Accra on the 25th of May was a five and
half hour flight. This gives us an accumulated flight travel of 23 hours;
so at £15,000 an hour, it thus cost us a colossal £345,000.
At current exchange, that is a staggering GHS2,828,432.80.”
According to him, “President Akufo-Addo, [who] has been
a leading voice for debt forgiveness in the international arena,
has been imposing additional regressive taxes back home,
with the justification that the economy isn’t in a good shape.
“Sadly, he consistently fails to lead by example in a period of
austerity where his government is appealing to struggling public
sector workers to lower-wage increase expectations.”
Mr Ablakwa’s concerns, communicated through an opinion
piece copied to the media, stems from President Akufo-Addo’s
decision to charter a “top-of-the-range luxury aircraft” rented
by Acropolis Aviation at £15,000 per hour.
This, he described as outrageous since Ghana already owns
an aircraft, which is in perfect working condition.
“It would have cost Ghana less than 15% of this 2.8 million Ghana Cedis,”
if the Presidential aircraft was used.
“The irony is that President Akufo-Addo engaged in this fantastic
extravagance on his way to France to go beg President Emmanuel Macron
for debt cancellation. Needless to add that President Macron
does not travel in such splendor,” he opined.
Mr Ablakwa noted that such lavish spending in such a period of
austerity sends the wrong message not only to the foreign powers
whom the President was beseeching for debt cancellation, but to
the Ghanaian citizens who, in recent times,
have been agitating for #FixTheCountry.
“I have, therefore, filed an urgent question in Parliament to
compel the Akufo-Addo administration to be accountable to
the Ghanaian people on this matter and ultimately to prick their
conscience to end this obscene profligacy at this time
of considerable economic hardships,” he concluded.
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The President’s 10-day working trip was part of efforts to re-engage
with the rest of the world after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic
and highlight Ghana, once again, as a country with an impressive
business-friendly atmosphere as well as bright economic prospects for the future.
