A member of Parliament's Finance Committee, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson says Akufo-Addo failed to paint an accurate picture in his delivery address on the State of the Nation (SONA).

In accordance with Article 67 of the Constitution, the President addressed Parliament at the beginning of each session of seventh House on Tuesday.

The President, among other things, updated Ghanaians on the economic, social, and financial state of the country.

However, the Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam MP is of the view that President Akufo-Addo's Tuesday address did not imitate the true state of the nation as intended.

“I could see that the speech in itself did not reflect the true state of the nation,” he said on JoyNews.

Per his observation, Mr Akufo-Addo was “not on top of his own speech, he could not own the speech for reasons no one knows.”

Speaking on PM: Express Tuesday, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson told host, Evans Mensah that he will rate Akufo-Addo’s address less that than 5 out of 10 marks.

“Evans if I’m asked to rank today’s state of the nation’s address, I will give it 3 over 10.”

According to him, the president “wasn’t very articulate as himself as we know him to be and what I saw today, I wasn’t impressed.”

Dr Forson expected Akufo-Addo to touch on issues such as the resignation of the former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu since it is connected to the controversial Agyapa Mineral Royalties deal.

“The special prosecutor resigned on the back of Corruption Risk Assessment on Agyapa, he failed to mention that,” he said.

“And for me, the office of the Special Prosecutor happens to be something that he [Akufo-Addo] is proud of because he said that, even in his speech today,” he added.

He is, therefore, disappointed particularly because the President had indicated a strong stance against corruption, “yet he could not recognise the fact that the immediate Special Prosecutor resigned on the back of the same corruption and tagged him and so many other things.”

The Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam Constituency MP also observed that Akufo-Addo in his presentation made some errors which were unlike him, indicating that he either failed to prepare or he wasn’t confident in some of his statement.

“He could not pronounce properly, not one word; a very important word for the sentence, but we could count close to 15 or 20 of them that he was wobbly,” he noted.

Dr Forson further indicated that the address should have been reconciliatory, considering the recent issues that unfolded after the December elections, killing of civilians during the polls and the just-ended Supreme Court hearing of Mahama's petition.

“Coming out of a very difficult election that ended up in a Supreme Court, ruling just came out, and a strong opposition in Parliament, I think the speech should have been nothing but re-conciliatory, but he fell short.”     

To him, although Mr Akufo-Addo acknowledged the need for a united force for the development of the country, he also gave a negative imprint of his words.

“You cannot say one thing, creating an impression that the nation should come together and in the end throw jabs at us.”