Author: Kwaku GhanaMPs

A member of Ghana’s delegation to the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), Parliament, Hon. Emmanuel Armah- Kofi Buah has said the return of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali to the sub-regional bloc must be navigated carefully as it is a tricky matter.

According to him it is possible and important to have these three Sahel Countries to return the sub-regional bloc in order to have a united front with unity of purpose in addressing issues concerning the region.

However, this must be tactfully and carefully handled to find solution to their return; since unlike Guinea that has returned to the community parliament, the other three failed to respond to a similar opportunity given them; thus, they were not present at the inaugural ceremony of the 6th Parliament.

The Deputy Minority Leader of the Ghanaian Parliament who is a first-timer in the Community Parliament was very grateful to the chair of the Authority of Heads of States and Government, President Ahmed Tinubu and Commission President Dr. Alieu Tory for their presence to swear in the lawmakers and the hospitality of Nigeria.

“So far, I think the chair of the Authority of Heads of States and Government said the right things; we must do everything we can to bring our brothers and sisters onto the fold. It is key for us, and we must find that solution. It is clear as the chairman of the commission said but our words must match our actions, so we must act in that direction very critically”, he said in an interview.

As to whether he was worried that Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger did not show up, he pointed out that the Guinean delegation came and obviously they were well received. We believe that steps must be taken, to make sure we resolve all the outstanding impacts.

“The fact is that we have no choice, we are in this together; Ghana cannot develop and leave like an island and they would be fine, unless the whole of the West African countries are also developed. We cannot have a universal access to electricity and see Burkina Faso and Togo have 30% of electricity.

Again, you know what will happen, we will be overwhelmed by all these people from other countries, and so we must all develop together, and take the step together. It is not like we have a choice; our destiny is being tied; we must work together to move forward together. It is very clear that these perspective opportunities will allow us to move the vision of our founding fathers.”

The Deputy Minority Leader, further pointed out that the vision of Ghana’s first President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah becomes very relevant wherever he goes. “Yesterday as I was observing things, I told myself what a missed opportunities; if only he (Kwame Nkrumah) had moved that train as quickly in 1957 and 1958, to organize the all African conference and pushed the agenda of the independence of Africa, we would not have come here today speaking to our sisters and brother in different countries in French, English and Portuguese; we would have been speaking one language. We have work to do”, he emphasised.

As a representative from Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s home town and what the Pan Africanist envisaged, he noted that no one would dispute that Africa and the sub-region must develop in unity if we still aspire to the vision of our forebears.

“Today I don’t think anyone would dispute that, if we are going to negotiate with the big countries like China and America, we shouldn’t go with tiny cups in hand, rather we should go as a bloc and with values.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The leader of the Ghanaian Delegation to the 6th ECOWAS parliament, Alexander Afenyo Markin has just been elected the 3rd Deputy Speaker of the Community Parliament.

Mr. Afenyo Markin who is also the Majority leader in the Ghanaian Parliament is not new to parliamentary proceedings both home and at the ECOWAS Parliament having been in these parliaments for some time now.

The 6th ECOWAS Parliament was inaugurated today, Thursday, April 4, 2024 with Guinea back on the block with the Authority of Heads of States as a way of encouraging the coup country’s back into the fold of the Community.

Despite the overture extended to Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso did not show up for the inauguration of the 6th Parliament.

Meanwhile, the Republic of Togo whose turn it is to produce the Speaker of the 6th Parliament is yet to produce its list hence the Parliament currently has a ceremonial Speaker in the person of Rt. Hon Sidie Mohamed Tunis.

Investigation carried out by Ghanamps.com  can reveal that Togo stayed out of the inauguration because they are yet to have their Parliamentary elections which was initially slated for April 20, 2024 but has been postponed to a later date.

The other Speakers are 1st Deputy Speaker in the person of Barau Jibrin from Nigeria, 2nd deputy Speaker Adjaratou Coulibaly from Ivory Coast, and 4th deputy Speaker Billay G. Tunkara from the Gambia.

Today’s election process took a lot of lobby to reach the point of electing the Deputy speakers. Cabo Verde was lobbying seriously to be part of the Deputy speakers but missed the opportunity due to their inability to honor their financial obligations to the sub-regional bloc, which was the same situation the confronted them in
the past at the 5th ECOWAS Parliament in Niger which member states have spoken against.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com/Abuja Nigeria

So, all this while, the so-called maintenance of transformers put out by this unrepentant Akuffo-Addo/Bawumia government, as being the cause of the current Dumsor was nothing but a fabricated and concocted story to cover up for their incompetence and wickedness.

Finally the cat is out of the bag, as the Public Utilities Workers Union succinctly puts it that ECG has over 33,000 transformers. So that, even there is ongoing maintenance of 630 transformers, that cannot be the reason for the massive load shedding (Dumsor) being experienced across the country.

The truth is the Government is broke and cannot procure fuel/gas for our thermal plants leading to a shortfall in generation capacity. There is nothing prior, in or subsequent to this reason that ever explain away the reality.

This Cock and Bull story must give way to serious business. The government must be humble enough to admit the avoidable liquidity challenges in the energy sector.

Thank you PUWU of TUC for exhibiting courage and patriotism in speaking truth to power.

Ghanamps.com

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Effutu Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Makin has commissioned a six-unit classroom bloc at Winneba Senior High School in his constituency.

It was named after the former headmistress of the school Mrs. Comfort Oti-Akenteng.

In addition to this, he donated 300 classroom furniture and an ultramodern risograph machine to the school.
Meanwhile he has in addition donated four hundred (400) furniture to the National Vocational Technical Institute (NVTI) of Winneba.

Ghanamps.com

The Minority in Ghana’s Parliament has taken a swipe at the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for the high tax regime in Ghana and pointed out that workers of the Ghana Revenue Authority should not be blamed as they are only preforming their statutory duties.

According to a statement sign by the Minority Leader Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson it is the Akufo-Addo/ Bawumia government that had imposed a lot of taxes on business and Ghanaians, so GRA should not be singled out.

“The government’s huge appetite for taxes has created a high tax regime which has made the country unattractive for doing business. It is therefore not surprising that many businesses in Ghana are relocating to other countries in the West African sub-region.”

They further added that, this spells doom and gloom for Ghanaian employees as jobs which would have otherwise been filled by them get exported as a consequence of the relocation of businesses from the country.

“Instead of blaming GRA workers, Alhaji Bawumia should take responsibility for the regressive and crippling taxes that his government has imposed on his watch as the Chairman of the government’s Economic Management Team. It is hypocritical and deceptive on the part of Alhaji Bawumia; the key architect of the government’s economic policies, to blame innocent GRA workers for the fallouts of a high tax regime after his government has sponsored, motivated and marshaled the numbers of the Majority Caucus in Parliament to fight tooth and nail to pass regressive, punitive, draconian and insensitive taxes.”

Again, it is absurd that Alhaji Bawumia, who approves economic policies including tax proposals at meetings of the Economic Management Team as well as justifies them at Cabinet meetings, has turned round to blame workers of GRA for the country’s high tax regime.

It was precisely because of the adverse impact of these taxes on businesses and the people that the NDC Minority Caucus in Parliament resisted the draconian taxes and voted as a bloc against them.

Already, we have served notice that the NDC Minority Caucus will bring a Private Member’s Bill to remove e-levy, emission tax and betting tax, the Minority stated.

According to the Minority, the government has finally agreed with them to abolish these taxes; except that while Dr Bawumia wants that done in the future, the NDC Minority Caucus wants the removal of the taxes now, they emphasized.

Ghanamps.com

Dr. Clement Apaak, Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament has lauded the various pre-tertiary teacher unions for giving listening ears to the National Labour Commission (NLC) reading their strike.

According to him, it is a good signal that the Teacher Unions have agreed to convey the outcome of their dialogue with the Ministry of Education to their members, adding that this gives a ray of hope that we could be seeing a resolution of the reasons that precipitated their strike action.

The Deputy Ranking Member speaking on TV3’s New Day program on Wednesday opined that teachers by nature would have to be pushed beyond what they can tolerate to decide to lay down their tools, “and so when teachers decide to take the kind of action that the teacher unions in the pre-tertiary educational sector took, it was because they didn’t find avenues and they didn’t get the needed audience as they said in terms of the employer engaging with them and giving them serious assurances in terms of addressing their grievances”.

Three pre-tertiary teacher unions, including the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana (CCT-GH) laid down their tools indefinitely on March 20th demanding from the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) better condition of service.

They demanded among other things:
1) that the Ministry and for that matter the Ghana Education Service release the laptops for which 30 percent of the cost have been deducted from their salary be given to about a 100 thousand of their colleagues who are yet to receive theirs.

2) again issues about a lack of a service scheme interns of a document that will lay out the rules and regulations or guidelines about their movements within the parameters, in terms of moving from one level to another , how appointments are made and what to expect.

These relieves the deputy Ranking Member said are legitimate, adding that he is even ashamed that his committee (Educational Committee) has not been forceful in holding duty bearers accountable as far as the Educational sector is concerned.

Meanwhile, the National Labour Commission (NLC) has directed the Teacher Unions to return to the classroom and subject themselves to the negotiation table with the relevant institutions.

Ghanamps.com