Month: June 2022

The Deputy Minority whip Ahmed Ibrahim is not enthused by the Finance Minister’s attitude towards parliament. Registering his displeasure at the Finance Minister’s response to the works of parliament, Mr. Ahmed described the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta as disrespecting the House by not showing up on the floor of the House when the House needs him on the floor.

“We come here to do Public Business, he does not come to the House but we know the payment he is making out there”. He made this remarks on Wednesday, June 8, 2022 when the Member of Parliament for Adaklu Governs Kwame Agbodza raised the issue of quorum on the floor of the House and recounted that a similar quorum issued was raised the previous day by same MP he had to be prevailed upon, for members to be called into the chamber for business to continue.

“The House should be taken serious, we are 137 :137 as Article 252 is clear on they working together and supporting the Executive and the Judiciary to ensure the citizens who brought them to the House, their interest is taken care of”. According to him, the House used one or two days to pass legislation to enable the Finance Minister to perform his duty, so he should “release the health insurance funds let it go, common fund let it go, same with the GETfund.

I was on television and children in Greater Accra are learning under trees; when it rains they run away to their houses the DCE is called to report on the school, what has been given to the DCE – the fund to perform is not given”. He pointed out that this time around they are not going to go to court but are going to use the powers given to them as a House by the constitution to compel the Finance Minister to seat up and do the needful.

Majority chief whip Frank Annoh-Dompreh did not take kindly to comments made on the floor by the first deputy whip and pointed out that despite the fact that he has a point he should do the proper thing. And questioned the Order the deputy Minority Whip was making his submissions. “Under which Order is our colleague coming under, this House is a House of record, bring the issue up and be captured properly”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo Markin has taken a swipe at the Minority Chief Whip for setting up an agenda for the media to take on the chairman of the Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.

“You are full of mischief, partisan and political; you were quiet when he was making his submission, where is the Ranking member of the Committee, we are looking for him”.

“Why has the chairman of the Committee been singled out for blame and the issue being personalized? We have both Chairman and Ranking of the Committee, they both confer, chairman alone does not move the committee”.

The Deputy Majority Leader pointed out that the Minority whip should not go after the Chairman of the Committee who is a respected senior member of the House and further added that when the Whip starts speaking the way he has started then they know the “Peace of the House is about being disturbed, he did not make a submission, it came with threat, if we want the committee to speed up its work, leadership should engage the committee and know their problems”.

And if they want them to move with speed of light they should engage them. They, on the Majority side do not accept the submission made by the Minority Chief Whip to single out chairman and subject him to attack and ridicule, when leadership of the Committees are part of the decision, he lamented.

“And your members are part of the committee why single him out and get the media to go after him. The media should know the agenda, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak is setting”

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka has served notice to the House that their side would resist any bill brought to the House, in the wake of the unnecessary delay in considering the private member bill, “The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 (LGBTQ+Bill) which has gone beyond three months.

According to him even if a bill is brought to the House to provide water in his constituency and the LGBTQ+ Bill has not been brought to the House for passage the Minority would resist all bills and not cooperate.

“So long as that bill stays there no other bills would pass through this House; we see that its deliberate, if you want it to be fast tracked you know what to do. If government want to get that bill done they know what to do. I am telling the chairman to the face that he does not want the bill to come to the House”.

And added that, if chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee says what he is saying is not true, he should work out in a week if he would not be able to bring out the report. “This is not the first time that a bill has been referred to him in his committee, we know how you work”, lamented.

This incidence happened on the floor of the House on Wednesday, June 8, 2022 when the Chairman of the Committee handling the bill Kwame Anyim-Adu-Antwi, sets the record straight on floor of the House that it was not his doing for the bill to delay before the Committee. But the Minority chief whip defended MPs who had taken a swipe at the chairman for the delay of the Bill.

And further pointed out that it is the way and manner the chairman of the Committee is going about things hence the delay in the Bill. “He should have gotten a big hall, invited all who had issues to submit say clause one of the Bill they take a day and conclude on that. But you decided to use a vehicle that gave people unnecessary time, meanwhile you know of the constitutional provision and I would give you one Article 106 clause 4; “A bill introduce in the House on behalf of the president shall and should not be delayed in any committee for three months”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The president of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Akufo Addo is to lead Ghanaians to plant some 20 million tree seedlings this year.

The 20 million tree seedlings target for the 2022 edition of the Green Ghana initiative is described as ambitious by the Minister of lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, thus every Ghanaian is expected to plant one tree seedlings.

As such the minister advised as many as possible individuals who can plant more trees to do so.

Other very prominent members of the Ghanaian public including the two former presidents, John Agyekum Kuffour, and John Dramani Mahama; Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Yaa Na, the clergy and the Chief Imam would all join in the tree planting exercise on Friday, June 10, 2022

Ten million seedlings would be planted in unreserved compartments while the remaining ten million would be planted across the country in schools, churches, mosques, along the street, homes, and other public areas.

The minister announced that President Akufo Addo would kick start the tree planting at the Afua Sunderland Park, the Vice president would do same at Tamale, the Speaker of Parliament would do his tree planting at the preset of parliament, the Chief Justice at the preset of the Supreme Court, former president Agyekum Kuffour at Gomoa Nsuam, former president Mahama in Accra, the Asantehene would do his in Kumasi, Yaa Naa at Yendi among others.

Ghana, the Minister noted, lost a whopping 80 percent of its forest cover since 1900 and now the country has a crisis situation in the form of climate change and Ghana as a respected member of the international community is contributing it’s quota to the global effort at fighting climate change through this initiative.

Mr. Samuel Jinapor called on all and sundry to join government and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources as well as the Lands Commission to make the day a success and make Ghana green again.
Ghanamps.com

Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo Markin has assured the House that everything would be done to programme the Minister for Finance and the National Security Minister during the week to appear in the House.

The Deputy Majority Leader gave the assurance when the Deputy Minority Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, raised concerns about the business committee not programming the aforementioned Ministers for the week.

The Rt. Hon Speaker, Alban Bagbin last week directed the Business Committee to programme the National Security Minister to appear before the House to brief the House on the security situation in the country.

The MPs during sitting last two weeks called for such briefing to acquaint them with relevant knowledge and information especially at the time government has launched the “See Something, Say Something” campaign in the wake of threats of terrorism in the country.

Mr. Armed Ibrahim, Member of Parliament for Banda reacting to the Business statement on Tuesday, June 7, 2022 said the MPs are the privileged ones who can have a close sitting and interrogate the matters with the Minster of National Security”, hence it was important to use any tool available to get him to address the House.

Additionally, last two weeks, the Speaker also directed that the Minister of Finance be programmed to appear before the House to brief the House on the COVID expenditures before the House could consider the Seventy-five million Euros that the Minister was requesting approval for.
Ghanamps.com

The Deputy Minority Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, has warned that parliament would not be doing its image any good if it fails to pass the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian family values bill 2021.
He said it would be an indictment on the 8th parliament if the bill is not considered.
“Many were those who were saying that they can swear heaven and earth that this parliament was not going to consider this bill, so clearly Mr. Speaker, we are proving them right; when they said they swore heaven and earth that this parliament of the Republic of Ghana could not have the will to be able to pass this proper sexual human right bill.

Mr. Speaker, it is getting more than one year now, and I’m totally surprised leadership is not keen on the bill”.

He asserts that this is not the first time the issue on the bill was raised in the plenary; it came up in the last meeting during the presentation of a business statement just as we are doing today. “And the answer that was given by the Hon. Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo Markin was that the Committee was inundated with about 150 petitions and that they were going to consider at least 10 petitions in a week. And that by estimation, by March this year the Committee would be able to exhaust the one hundred and fifty petitions that is if they were to consider 10 a day, then they needed fifteen weeks”.

He noted that parliament was on recess for about two months, and from the time the question was asked, that was at the beginning of the last sitting, “so the fifteen weeks excuse that was given by the deputy Majority Leader who presented the business statement on that fateful day, the fifteen weeks period was to elapse as at 31st March, 2022.

“Mr. Speaker, as I speak today, we are in June, so if you gave an excuse and bought time for fifteen weeks, the fifteen weeks have elapsed”.

He advised the Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi let the whole country know if he is facing challenges on the bill. “But we can’t keep the country at suspense with the bill which we gave excuse that by 31st March, we would be able to pass it; now we are in June, nothing is heard”.

He believes if the Committee had been able to present a report to the plenary, the house would have been able to use just one week or two weeks to consider the bill”

Dominic Shirmori/Ghanamps.com