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Former Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources under John Mahama’s government, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has described assurances made by the first gentleman of the land as ‘camera promises’ because they never materialize.

According to him, they are ‘camera promises’ because the President makes such comments when he is before a crowd and wants them to be enthused of him.

Discussing President Akufo-Addo’s speech made at the Africa Climate Week celebration wherein he advised more practical solutions are provided to channel financial means towards national climate ambition, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh opined that the President can best be tagged as a ‘hypocrite’ for making such a speech.

The former Deputy Minister, who is the NDC Member of Parliament for Juaboso, bemoaned the decision by the current administration to trade off a large chunk of the Atiwa forest regarded as the biggest natural forest reserve in West Africa, for a paltry $2billion to the Chinese.
 
“Lands used for Parks and Gardens and other important sectors of land that can sustain the country to fight climate change positively have all been sold out under his administration, therefore where lies his [President Akufo-Addo’s] Africa climate week celebration advice?” he asked on UTV’s ‘Adekye Nsroma’ newspaper panel discussion programme.

“I always say the President is a camera promise leader because he makes a lot of positive submission on camera but never fulfills any of them . . . he should change from that and be careful of what he says on camera,” he added.

The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, last week indicated that measures to deal with the phenomenon of climate change are contained in his Government’s Co-ordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies.

According to President Akufo-Addo, Government’s flagship programmes such as the programmes for “Planting for Food and Jobs”, “One-Village-One-Dam”, and “One-District-One-Factory”, are all geared towards boosting industrialisation and rural development, as well as building Ghana’s resilience to the impacts of climate change.

He made this known on Wednesday, 20th March, 2019, when he delivered the opening speech at the High-Level Session of the Africa Climate Week, held at the Accra International Conference Centre.