President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is currently in the UK after speaking at Bishop TD Jakes‘ International Leadership Summit (ILS), North Carolina, USA.
In the UK, the President is expected to launch one of his government’s flagship tourism drive projects, dubbed “Destination Ghana”, and hold bilateral discussions with the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
For some time now, the flight the President uses for his international trips has been in the news with Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa giving Ghanaians the President’s travel history including the cost of his trips abroad.
Government has never disputed the figures the North Tongu MP alleges in his narrative anytime he raises concerns about the President’s international trips and the cost involved.
Okudzeto Ablakwa seems to be failing with his campaign to get the President to fly the presidential jet or uses a commercial flight whenever he travels outside the country because the President prefers to fly a private jet which charges the Ghanaian taxpayer an hour.
In his latest narrative about the President’s trip to the US and the UK, the MP who is also the Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee said, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo left Accra for Washington on Thursday 31st March, 2022 at 11:52 pm aboard a United Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with call sign UAL997.
“Before the President landed at 6:40 am at the Dulles International Airport in Washington on the 1st of April, the ubiquitous luxury LX-DIO had landed at the same airport the previous day at 12:27 pm waiting for President Akufo-Addo.
“President Akufo-Addo couldn’t wait to fly his favourite US$18,000 an hour LX-DIO from Washington where he departed at 10:13 am and arrived at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina at 11:22 am — a flight time of 01:09. It is important to acknowledge that there were more than a dozen available commercial flights with business class tickets not exceeding $700 in value,” Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa wrote on his social media timeline.
He added, the President kept the LX-DIO with him as he addressed Bishop T.D. Jakes’ summit and then flew aboard the same extravagant jet on Saturday, 2nd of April, 2022 at 9:28 am US time and “arriving at the London Stansted Airport at 9:40 pm UK time. A flight time of some 7hours and 54minutes.”
Ablakwa continued: “at this point, it is unclear if the President will return to Ghana with the LX-DIO on Wednesday or if he would stick to the new deceptive strategy of being seen in the Ghanaian jurisdiction aboard commercial flights while hiding his elaborate chartered arrangements from the prying Ghanaian public.
“It is imperative to note that so far, the Ghanaian taxpayer must cough up an astronomical US$465,000 in luxury rental charges. At the current exchange, that is a scary GHC3,505,515.49.”
But so far, how much has the alleged extravagant lifestyle of the President cost the Ghanaian taxpayer for the past 11 months?
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has observed that for the past 11 months, thus, from May 2021 till now, the Ghanaian taxpayer has spent at least GHC28.5million on President Akufo-Addo’s ostentatious travels.
“How duplicitous is that for a government that claims to be cutting expenditure drastically in the wake of widespread excruciating hardships and economic mismanagement, and yet our President has the conscience to spend a whopping 3.5million Ghana Cedis attending a church service and a fanciful tourism event in London.
“With this terrible example from the President by attending events at great cost to the taxpayer that cannot be classified as [a] priority, one wonders how the presidency can enforce its recent ban on ministerial international travels,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, as part of some strategies employed by the government to revive Ghana’s ailing economy, the President after a crunch cabinet meeting at the Peduase Lodge issued a directive to his appointees on all foreign travels, except pre-approved statutory travels.
These measures were communicated to Ghanaians by the Finance Minister at a press conference in Accra. The government took these measures in order to reduce the persistent economic difficulties.
“With immediate effect, [the] government has imposed a moratorium on all foreign travels, except pre-approved statutory travels,” Ken Ofori-Atta said.
