Most of Mahama’s promises may not be kept – Kwesi Pratt

The Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt has said while he believes President John Mahama’s State of the Nation address had its positive sides, the address was laden with many conflicting interests.

President John Dramani Mahama last Tuesday presented the State Nation address to parliament and there has been varied reactions to the address.

Commenting on the address on Alhaji and Alhaji on Radio Gold Saturday Mr Pratt observed that there were various aspects of the address which deserved commendation but feared most of the promises made by the President may not be kept.

“There were various aspects of the State of the Nation address which were positive and I’m happy that some of the things that we’ve said over a long period of time, appeared to be recognized now by a government,” but “whether or not the promises they are making will be kept is another matter,” he said.

The promises are significant and important, Kwesi Pratt stressed and added that, “If they are kept, they can move Ghana out of the [woods].”

According to him, “Even though it is called the State of the Nation address, it is not for the President to tell us the conditions in which we live. Every Ghanaian is aware of the conditions in which we live.”

The Managing Editor said the essence of the State of the Nation address is to provide an opportunity to the President and the government to tell Ghanaians “what they have done, what they are doing and what they are going to do to in other to resolve the concrete problems which face our people.”

According to Kwesi Pratt, the impression he got from reading the President’s State of the Nation address is that a lot of “things went into the composition of the address, so you find different conflicting interests in one address.”

“When all the pieces had been put together, nobody sat down to test the address for its ideological, political and logical consistency” and that, it was important for that to be checked before it was made public.

Most of the issues are therefore hanging together “uncomfortably” he added.