Month: December 2022

High Commissioner of the Gambia, extraordinary and permanent representative to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) H. E. Mohamadou Musa Njie has praised the late and first former president of his country H. E. Dawda Kairaba Jawara for winning an award at the sub-regional level.

He received an honorary award, for eminent persons for his leadership and immense contribution to the promotion and restoration of peace in the sub-region and in the world.

It was during his turner as chairman of the Authority of Heads of States and Government (1989-1990 and 1991-1992) that ECOMOG was established to restore peace in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 1990s.

The Permanent representative of the Gambia to ECOWAS hosting staff of the Embassy in Nigeria, lawmakers and family of the late first president of the Gambia- son and former first lady at his residence (Gambia House) to a dinner noted that when they have something good, they would want to showcase it to the world.

“It is our residence and it’s appropriate to celebrate our late first president for his excellence in promoting peace in West Africa for championing human right in ECOWAS and one of the founding fathers in pushing for the establishment of ECOWAS”.

He welcomed his guest on behalf of the president and used the opportunity to thank President Adama Barrow for spearheading the nomination.

“It is time to teach the young ones, our sons and daughters about their heroes and about the people who contributed to help in shaping Africa. We have to continue to promote our leaders more especially those who have done well. We have immortalized the former president’s good works and as a member of the PPP, I thanked the president for making sure that the name of the former first president to be instilled in the history books of the Gambia”.

Hon Fatoumatta Njai, the only female representative of Gambia to the ECOWAS Parliament , on her part thanked H. E. President Adama Barrow for the role he played for the first late former President to receive the first ECOWAS award.

She further told the gathering that when the president of the Gambia nominated the late president, his peers felt that he deserves the award and any other president in the sub-region who had intention of nominating any other persons held on to it.

And thanked the High Commissioner and permanent representative of the Gambia to ECOWA for hosting them and bringing them together to celebrate their late first former president, for the award presented to him.

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Parliament on Tuesday, December 6, 2023 approved the Budget Statement and Fiscal Policy of Government for the year ending 31st December, 2023.

This follows a fears debate between both sides for about a week.

On Tuesday, leaders of both Caucus concluded the debate giving the Speaker to pose the question and subsequently declaring the ‘yeah’ as having carried the day.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu in concluding his side’s debate made it clear that they would not reject the budget saying that is the hope of the Majority just so they can put the blame on the Minority for their failed budget.

He, however, called for major expenditure cut as government continues to urge the citizenry to accept austere measures to save the ailing economy.

He also didn’t mince words in stating that his side will reject a number of tax measures introduced in the budget including the 2.5 Percent VAT, and E-Levy.

Other measures the Minority was emphatically opposed to include the allocation for the construction of the National Cathedral, and see debt restructuring.

The Majority Leader, Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu on the other hand described the budget as offering hope to reviving
the economy.

He chastised the Minority of being horrible managers of the economy and would have had worse situation if they were in charge of the economy at this critical moments of world recession.

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Community lawmakers from the Gambia on the sidelines of the 2022 Second Ordinary Session on Saturday 3rd December 2022 paid a courtesy call on the President of the Republic, His Excellency Adama Barrow.

The President was in Abuja to attend the 62nd ECOWAS Ordinary Session of Heads of States and Government slated for Sunday 4th December 2022.

He was also on schedule to attend the swearing-in of Gambian-born President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, and the ECOWAS Excellence Award to the former President of Gambia, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, for his leadership in establishing ECOMOG, restoring peace in the sub region, and championing and making Banjul the home of Human Rights.

The Majority Leader and Head of the Gambian delegation to ECOWAS Parliament Hon. Billay G. Tunkara expressed their appreciation to the President on the ascension of a Gambian to the presidency of the ECOWAS Commission.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Mamadou Tangara said that his Ministry was acting under the directive of the President to reach out to all his counterparts to present the Gambian candidate.
In his response, President Barrow noted the need for Gambians to assume such a crucial position in the sub-regional organisation.

He thanked the delegation for the visit and assured them of his governments support to the course of diplomacy between Gambia and Nigeria.

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The Econoic Communicty of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, has condemn the barbaric and dispicable voilence perpetrated on a femal lawmake of the Senegal Parliament, Amy Ndiaye Gniby on Thursday, Deceber 1, 2022 which has gone vira.

At its plenary Session on December 3, 2022 at the on going Second Ordianry Session deliberated and adopted the following declaration:

1. The ECOWAS Parliament strongly condemns this despicable act unworthy of a parliamentarian from the ECOWAS region at a time when we are witnessing a proliferation of initiatives to prevent and eliminate violence against women and come helping women who are victims of it;

2. Reiterates its commitment to respect for women, and reaffirms that any form of violence against women is unacceptable, whatever the situation and whatever the circumstances;

3. Recalls that the State of Senegal, in addition to its fundamental law, has signed and ratified the international legal instruments relating to gender-based violence;

4. Reaffirms that this act, whatever the circumstances, cannot be justified nor tolerated in a country which guarantees parity between men and women in politics;

5. Considering that one of the key goals of the 5th Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament is to strengthenwomen participation in politics and that the action as witnessed is very regrettable as it sends negative impressions of the gains made in the past few years, the ECOWAS Parliament will continue to support and advocate for increased women participation and condemn any act of violence and abuse against women in general.

6. While wishing a speedy recovery to the victim MP, the ECOWAS Parliament urges the Senegalese State, in collaboration with the National Assembly of Senegal to take the necessary steps to ensure that justice is done for this unfortunate event.

Dr. Sidie Mohamed TUNIS

Rt. Hon. Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament

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A member of Nigerian’s delegation to the Community Parliament, Oghene Egoh has said with the country report presented by Liberia and Sierra Leone over the weekend at plenary, there is the need to take a second look at the political situation there as both countries prepare for election next year.

According to him the Community Parliament should take up the issue in Liberia as the World Bank and other International agencies assessment has raised some alert ahead of their Presidential and Parliamentary elections next year; “so that we can send a delegation to go and see the Liberian president and other politicians there.

The danger, he stated is that when the unstable political situation gets worse, the military could take over and then ECOWAS Parliament will be short of one more country, so the issue should be looked at”.

Further in his contribution, he noted that, the Country report of Sierra Leone was okay, there is a major dispute as to representation and how the elections will be done, stating that if you speak to one or two of their delegation, they will tell you going into their election is unstable; there is no need to hide anything from each other in the Parliament.

“If we in Nigeria have discovered that there will not be free and fair elections, we will say it out, if we say it and ECOWAS intervenes it will help us. But if we know there is something that will create problem in the country and we say there is nothing and something happens we have lost two countries”.

Mr. Bamidele Salam in his remarks noted that conducting of census needs accurate data for the purpose of planning and development, but unfortunately most of the member states in the sub-region have issues of politics coming to interfere with the smooth running of national censuses.

As some of the issues identified ranges to corruption and inefficiencies and lack of political will of the political leaders to ensure that the process is conducted in a manner that will be seamless and this is worrying given the fact that development partners support these national census processes. He was contributing to the Country report presented by Liberia, and thanked the Liberia delegation for their candor display in this report.

He further, commended Liberia for passing a law that guarantees thirty percent for women in Parliament, and hopes other countries will learn from that.

On Sierra Leone, he expressed worry over the political situation there with regard to management of inter-party conflict reference to the August 10, 2022 protest and there was mention of panel of investigation to bring out measure to cub it and there has not been conclusion on that matter.

He queried about what is being done; how inclusive is the members of the opposition as they are getting close to the elections.

Leader of the Liberian delegation, Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe Jr. in his contribution raised concern about the political situation in Sierra Leone, stating that for the third time the military has to enter their Parliament House and brutalized MPs from the opposition party. He added that it is a serious situation and the ECOWAS Parliament must send a fact finding mission to Sierra Leone to investigate this serious issue, since it is neither the first nor second time, but the third time.

He further pointed out that less than a year to their election, they are still trying to change the electoral law, to work in the favour of the ruling establishment, indicating the situation is quite alarming and the delegation needs to speak to it.

On the issue of the August 10, 2022 demonstration, he pointed out that, he thinks the issue is being diluted. It was of great concern political and security situation and Sierra Leone delegation has five members to the Community Parliament.

One independent, two opposition, two ruling party, “we notice that none of the opposition party members are in here for the country report and I hope the delegation can tell us why they are not here whiles they are presenting their country report?”, he stated

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The Minority Caucus in parliament has made clear their objections to certain aspects of the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of government and vow to reject those aspects as they deem them inimical to the very existence of Ghanaian in these difficult economic times.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu flanked by his colleagues from the Minority at a press conference on Monday December 5, 2022 said they remain resolute in objecting to the E-levy, the 2,5 percent increase in VAT, the National Cathedral, and the debt restructuring.

E-Levy
Mr Haruna said their position on the E-levy has not changed, and not even its reduction to 1 percent is acceptable. “It is a setback to this cashless economy”.

He said they are also astonished to learn in the Budget that the GHS 100 threshold for e-levy deductions has been abolished. “How come that the threshold is being abolished. How do we protect the vulnerable poor?

He added that at least a 300gh threshold with a reduction in the principal from 1.7 to 1% will be ok. “You recall my suggestion of a 1% levy at a threshold of 500, which was out-rightly rejected by Government at the negotiations. This was part of the discussion when we rejected “AGYAPA”, he staed.

Debt Restructuring
On debt restructuring, Mr Iddrisu said the form and structure of this debt restructuring is unacceptable to the NDC Minority, stating that they simply cannot agree to this as it has dire consequences on the financial sector, on pension funds and on jobs.

He said the Minority is unable to help the government at this point as it warned them ahead yet they failed to heed those warnings.

He asserts that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has himself made it categorical that “Ghana’s debt is unsustainable and we cannot service it fully if we do not restructure some GHc 137 billion of our domestic debt”.
National Cathedral 80 Million Ghana Cedis.

According to the Minority, the GHS 80 million earmarked for the National Cathedral does not constitute a spending priority at this time as it will bring the total amount spent on the project to about GHS 420 million, the total amount of tax payer funds so far spent. The estimated total cost of the project is around 400million dollars, and wondered if the project constitutes a national priority.

“For a government that is unable to print textbooks for basic school pupils several years after introducing new curricular unable to pay NABCO arrears and that is indebted to contractors and suppliers to the tune of over GHS 40 billion, this is most imprudent and unacceptable”.

2.5 % INCREASE IN VAT
The Minority described the 2.5 increase in VAT as a pile up of more hardships on the people of Ghana.

“The most punitive among these taxes is the addition of 2.5% to the VAT rate bringing it to a cumulative 21.5% (made up of 2.5% GETFund, 2.5% National Health Insurance, 1% Covid Levy and 15% VAT all levied under the terms of Value Added Act, Act 870) the highest in Africa”.

They questioned the moral right of President Akufo-Addo to increase VAT by 2.5% when he led the “KUMI PREKO” demonstration in 1995 resulting in the loss of five lives.

According to the Minority, the high rate of inflation has already eroded the disposable incomes of Ghanaians and they can no longer bear to give more to a government that is determined to waste our resources on extravagant living.

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