A former Deputy Minister of Information Felix Kwakye Ofosu has responded to comments by Council of State member, Lawyer Sam Okudzeto on the cost of Akufo-Addo’s foreign trips.
According to him, Mr Okudzeto had claimed that asking questions about the hiring of a presidential jet for President Akufo-Addo amounts to stupidity.
“The NPP’s Sam Okudzeto says asking questions about the waste, extravagance and ostentation of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government in renting expensive luxurious aircrafts for the President’s travels despite our ownership of an equally luxurious Presidential jet amounts to stupidity of the media.
“This is one of the people held up as avowed critics of poor governance and misrule in the 70s and 80s,†Felix wrote on Facebook.
Mr Okudzeto had said that Ghana always benefits from President Akufo-Addo’s trips outside Ghana hence too much attention should not be focused on the cost of the voyage.
“When he was going to Germany, there was hue and cry. ‘Why is he travelling? He takes these expansive planes? It cost so much per day.’ People do not understand what diplomacy is all about. Diplomacy is an expensive process, but there are always benefits.â€
“The President cannot sit down there in the Jubilee House and think all these [benefits] will just be coming to us. I don’t think it (attacks) is productive and helps the country,†Mr Okudzeto told Joy FM.
Background
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has stoked the debate about Nana Akufo-Addo’s chartered flights for foreign trips, promising to interrogate the cost of the President’s recent trip to the U.S. and back when Parliament resumes.
The North Tongu legislator said in a Facebook post on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, that President’s trip from Accra to Azores in Portgual to Houston to New York and back to Accra cost the taxpayer GH¢10 million.
“This is the flight distance breakdown: [6 hours to Azores; 1 hour refueling; 10 hours to Houston; 3 hours from Houston to New York; New York to Accra 11 hours plus 1 hour of refueling break; 12 hours of pick up and drop off time -- this works out to a total flight time of 44 hours).
“A cumulative sum of President Akufo-Addo’s recent three luxury trips abroad imposes a colossal GHS10million on the suffering Ghanaian taxpayer. Reflect on what GHS10million can do in the ailing health sector or the limping education sector of our dear nation,†he posted.
He also took on the Director of Communication at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, for allegedly denying that the President chartered a flight for his recent trips to UK and Germany.
Mr Arhin is reported to have said that the President’s trip to the UK first, for the Global Education Summit, and subsequently to Germany, was not on a Luxembourg-based aircraft registered LX-DIO as Mr Ablakwa had claimed.
But in a sharp rebuttal, Mr Ablakwa said Eugene peddled unpardonable falsehood when he tried to defend the President.
“A presidential spokesman should not be desecrating what is expected to be hallowed precincts of the seat of government in this Goebbelian manner.
"I can authoritatively confirm without a scintilla of doubt or any equivocation for that matter that President Akufo-Addo on his current trip to the United States of America has again chartered the same ultra luxury aircraft he used to the UK and Germany — the Luxembourg-based luxury jet registered LX-DIO and operated by Global Jet Luxembourg. Same Boeing 737-900ER BBJ3 with Manufacturer Serial Number (MSN) 62515 and Line Number 5659,†he said.
Mr Ablakwa, a Ranking Member on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, has launched a campaign against the President’s continuous decision to ditch the presidential jet for foreign travels.