<<Print>>

President John Dramani Mahama will deliver his first State of the Nation�s address on Friday in accordance with Article 67 of the Constitution after the return of Members of Parliament to the House on January 3, 2013. The address will be the government's fifth address to the House since it was inaugurated on January 7,2009 for a four-year term which officially ends on midnight of January 6. The address according to the Spokesperson of the President, John Jinapor, will "seek to give a true and accurate reflection of the actual state of the nation in terms of the economy, in terms of the infrastructure, the health of the economy, and all those sectors that His Excellency would want to touch on." He further indicated that "certainly, the President will want to talk about the actual state of the economy, where we are now and possibly, he might give indications of where he wants take the nation to." The President is however likely to receive a hostile reception from angry MPs when he appears before the House. At yesterday�s sitting, angry lawmakers declined to consider loan agreements listed for approval in protest against the Mahama administration�s apparent failure to release their back pay. The MPs were also unhappy about alleged delays in releasing their ex-gratia, two days before the 5th parliament dissolves.