Noted attorney Martin Kpebu has said that he concurs with former president John Dramani Mahama’s assertion that the 66th Independence Day celebration should have been postponed due to the difficult circumstances in Ghana at the time.
The lawyer claims that money allocated for the Independence Day celebration could have been better spent on the nation’s urgent needs, such as the purchase of children’s vaccines, which are currently in short supply, and the payment of pensioner bondholders, who are currently facing many difficulties.
Martin Kpebu claimed that other African leaders, such as the president of Tanzania, cancelled their independence celebrations, but President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is too stubborn to heed advice in an interview on Neat FM.
“He (President) Akufo-Addo is stubborn. He thinks the country belongs to him, even Kwame Nkrumah who won us independence did not do what Akufo-Addo is doing. He does not listen to advise.
“We need vaccines for our children, they are suffering. Apart from that, individual bondholders, we have been making a lot of noise about our members needing their monies to buy their medications and other expenses but they have not been paid.
“The Constitution in Article 36(1) states that when you are developing Ghana be careful that you will provide adequate livelihood. And so, if someone has lent you money and a pensioner medical doctor, and it is time to pay the doctor and you are saying you don’t have money but you have money to celebrate Independence Day, this is an affront to the 1992 Constitution,” he said in Twi.
The lawyer added that the president must step down now because if he does not, the hardships in the country are bound to get worse.
The national parade to mark Ghans@66 was held at Adaklu, a community a few meters away from the capital town of the Volta Region, Ho, despite calls by some leading Ghanaians, including the immediate past Chief Justice, Sophia Akufo, and former President John Dramani Mahama, for the celebration to be scrapped.
