Alexander Akwasi Acquah, the Member of Parliament for Akyem Oda, has described the 2026 State of the Nation Address (SONA) as a hopeless and visionless speech lacking tangible initiatives to transform the lives of Ghanaians.
The lawmaker expressed disappointment over the president’s failure to provide updates on critical health infrastructure, specifically the Agenda 111 hospital projects.
Additionally, he noted the absence of progress reports regarding the medical drone technology previously implemented to bolster the nation’s healthcare logistics.
The “Fly-To-Save-A-Life” project—a 24-hour delivery system operated by Zipline International—was designed to serve approximately 2,000 health facilities from four distribution centres.
“This initiative made on-demand delivery of medical supplies to an estimated 2,000 health facilities; however, this government has not provided any update. We don’t know whether the initiative has been scrapped or not. Aside from that, the government has also failed to update us on the implementation of the Ghana Health Information Management System (GHIMS).”
Speaking on Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM, the MP took aim at the President’s justification for reducing cocoa prices, labelling the explanation “unsatisfactory”.
“The reasons provided by the president for reducing cocoa prices were unsatisfactory. He did all he could to justify the reduction. It is important to understand that you don’t run a country to make losses or let spirits bug you; you run a country to bring relief to the people. Even in the banking sector crisis, we provided support to the banks—so why have we failed in providing support for the cocoa farmers?”
He further warned of a looming crisis where desperate cocoa farmers might transition into illegal mining or sell their lands to “galamsey” operators due to a lack of state support. He alleged that the government’s focus has shifted disproportionately toward gold since the establishment of GoldBod.
“It appears the government is no longer interested in cocoa. They have focused on gold and illegal mining. They think cocoa is no longer vibrant, and so they have moved to gold. It is not right to allow the cocoa sector to collapse for galamsey to take over.”
He told host Kwabena Agyapong that there was the urgent need for the government to prioritise domestic initiatives that generate sustainable resources for national development rather than neglecting foundational sectors like agriculture.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
