Category: General

The embattled Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has told Ghanaians he did nothing wrong as he is being chased by the Minority from office.

Taking his turn during the debate on the Censure motion brought before him by the Minority, he said the ground and allegations brought before him “excluding a few of them, I humbly say that I have done nothing amiss”.

He admits that the Censure has done some good to advancing our democracy as in the hope that such censures will have some thoroughness and less politically motivated.

He said he has really anything to say after everything he has said at the committee meeting.

“But I tell you Mr. Speaker, that even if I said I am innocent, they will not believe me, and if I asked for evidence, proof, they would not be able to answer that; I have committed no crime”.

He chastised and queried the Minority about what happened before they run to the IMF in 2015 in the absence of external factors like COVID, Russia/Ukraine war, as the Minority continue to echo issues about recklessness, mismanagement, and conflict of interest as their basis for the Censure.

The debate was based on the 8-membee ad hoc Committee report constituted by the Speaker to look into the Censure motion brought before the House by the Minority.

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The Majority Caucus in parliament staged a walkout just after debate on the report on the Censure motion brought before the House against the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta was concluded.

The Majority Leader, Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, after having his bit on the debate as the final contributor announced that his side would not be part of the ballot process and that they have washed their hands from the rest of the process.

Subsequently, members of the majority caucus walked out leaving only the Minority group to continue with the balloting.

The House debated the 8-member ad hoc committee report presented to the House on the Censure motion and during the process each side did their best to affirm their position with the Minority insisting that the finance Minister has outlived his usefulness at the ministry having mismanaged and brought the economy to its knees.

The Majority on the other hand argued that the basis for the Censure was not well grounded.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General was also given the floor to present his legal opinion on the matter since it wa the first time such a motion was being carried out.

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Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta survives the threat of being booted out of office.

The Minority group that brought the Censure motion against the finance Minister though fully represented in the House with their entire 136 members and took part in the vote, they could not achieve their goal to get the finance minister out of office.

The failure however, was due to the fact that the Majority group staged a walk out just after the conclusion of the debate.

The motion needed two-third majority to pass, unfortunately only 136 members voted for the motion which was short of the required two-third majority.

Haruna Iddrisu, the leader of the Minority group after their failed censure said posterity will judge his side as standing with the suffering masses who have to endure under the hardships created by the bad policies of the finance minister.

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Lawmakers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament tasked to go on a fact finding mission, in the wake of a male lawmaker in the Senegal National Assembly attacking a colleague female lawmaker, Hon Amy Ndiaye have arrived in Senegal to undertake their mission.

The team comprises of the third deputy Speaker Memounatou Ibrahima, the fourth deputy Speaker Adja Satu Camara Pinto and Hon Fatoumatta Njie from the Gambia National Assembly.

They have visited the National Assembly of Senegal and Amy Ndiaye at the hospital.

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The Ad-Hoc Committee set up to consider the censure motion moved against the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta by the Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisuhas been tabler before the House.

The report is thus expected to be considered by the House today, Thursday, December 8, 2022.

It is anticipated that a full-blown debate and the long awaited vote pursuant to Article 82 of the 1992 constitution will commence today.

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The family of the late first former President of the Gambia H. E. sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara has dedicated the honorary award of eminent persons for his leadership and immense contribution to the promotion and restoration of peace in the sub-region and in the world to Gambians.

As they receive the award on behalf of Gambians irrespective of their political persuasion, at a dinner hosted by the High Commissioner of the Gambia, extraordinary and permanent representative to ECOWAS H. E. Mohamadou Musa Njie at his residence in Abuja.

Son of the late President, Dawda Jawara Jr. who spoke on behalf of the family notes that the award given by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the citation was very wonderful.

And one of the reasons that the award is special is that it comes almost three decades after the recipient last held office and comes most five years after he passed away and that to him signals an enduring legacy.

Also what his father left behind has long to run; and history has made a pronouncement on his achievement. “My father’s award brings a little bit of regrets there is an admission of something that could have been done when the recipient was alive but the significant of its is that he has been awarded this time”, he spoke softly.

Again, it goes to prove how enduring his legacy in terms of the brooder significance the ward was made, his peace keeping and conflict resolution came out that started before ECOWAS. He was very active in that before the establishment of ECOWAS. It is an opportunity to congratulate the current leadership of ECOWAS, he said.

Mr. Dawda Jawara Junior underscored the importance of the current leadership of ECOWAS looking back into history and taking a look at the achievement and experience of those that have gone before them shows the wiliness to learn lessons from our immediate history and how his father conducted himself.

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The Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu has asked the public to continue to have faith and trust in the Minority in exacting accountability and in standing strong with them.

Reacting to the adoption of the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government on Tuesday, 6th December, 2023, Mr. Haruna said they only approved the policy principles of the budget, adding that the approval process of the 2023 budget is not over yet.

“Yesterday’s decision; yes you are justified to be critical of parliament and to be critical of the Minority, but the consequences of not approving yesterday’s policy principles are even more graver than not approving it at all. And therefore, you need to appreciate what we would subject the 2023 entire budget approval process to”.

He was emphatic that the Minority Caucus is not for the 2.5 percent VAT increase, debt exchange/debt restructuring, because it is not consistent with contractual law and obligations and “we are for expenditure cut”.

The Minority assured the public to rest assured that the Minority will be critical at the budget estimate and the appropriation stages.

The Ranking Member on the Finance Committee, Dr. Ato Forson in allaying the fear of the public said “yesterday’s approval of the Budget Statement does not constitute approval of the budget. So for the record, the budget has not been approved yet”.

“It should be noted that we in the Minority have indicated that going forward we have zeroed in into certain things we believe is wrong and therefore we would not support it approval”.

Among these issues include a number of tax measures that have introduced. “Government requested parliament to approve 23 tax measures; and we have noticed that out of the 23 measures 2 of them are measures that we cannot support – VAT, and E-levy threshold exemptions”.

He asserts that the National Democratic Congress as a Social Democratic party believes in progressive taxes, and being the government that introduced the VAT, they think “this is not the time to increase VAT at a tie inflation has imposed inflation tax on certain goods and services to the extent that prices of goods and services have sometimes double in some cases tripled. So we are asking the government to hold on to that policy until the future”.

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As lawmakers in the Community Parliament raise red alert in the Sierra Leone country report, Dr. Sidie Mohammed Tunis set the record straight pointing out that his Country is not trying to change the electoral laws one year into their general elections.

According to him, it is misrepresentation; the district block system that they are talking about is in their laws in their constitution and quoted an amended section 38 3 b to back his point.

“I said first past the post system, the country shall be divided according to the population quota. There was a census in Sierra Leone in December last year which means the population quota that existed for those constituencies no longer exist. And because of that the president has pronounced the date for the presidential and legislative elections; then national electoral commission of Sierra Leone, they will not be able to go and give quota and divide the place into constituencies based on the current population quota. The last census was in 2015”.

The Rt. Hon Speaker who was presiding over proceedings on Saturday, December 3,2022 had to leave the chair for the third deputy speaker, Madam Memounatou Ibrahima to take the chair as he offered explanation by joining his colleagues from Sierra Leone.

He further told the House the President of Sierra Leone thought it wise to consult with the Electoral Commission to declare for a proportional representation system and hope his colleagues from Liberia will understand that, as they were worried pointing out whatever affects Sierra Leone affects Liberia.

As he speaks there are no constituencies in Sierra Leone now, it was through the same law that he entered into parliament; the first time in 2002, through a district block system of proportional representation.

Also on the political situation, he explained that, any country going into elections – first or third world country there will be some form of tension because of politics. Because people are fighting for power, adding that he is not a security person like his colleague from Liberia, Hon Stephen J. H. Zargo is.

“I can tell you the kind of political tolerance we have in Sierra Leone; we do not have it in most countries, I tell you. We are the only country without political detainee, none, zero. There is no way the said situation will be bad, and we do not have political detainees”.

And the problem in Sierra Leone is not inter-party politics; rather it is the intra-party politics. The problem is that the main opposition is in a very serious problem; they are in and out of court every day fighting each other every day and government has nothing to do with that and Hon Edwin Snowe and Hon Momolu Massaquoi know what I am talking about.

Additionally, he explained to the plenary that, he has had meetings as Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament with key players in the opposition, just to bring peace in the opposition party that is the major problem but not government and the opposition party.

On the August 10, 2022 disturbances, their constitution provides for people to air their views. For people to demonstrate peacefully they have the right, but when you have a situation where “the demonstrators have guns and cutlass, that is no longer a peaceful demonstration”. He pointed out that it can only call for the intervention of the security forces because it’s the right of individuals to demonstrate, and government allows them to demonstrate adding that on that faithful day, they were escorted by the police officers who had no arms.

When the demonstrators noticed that the police did not have gun, they attacked and killed in broad day light six police officers. “They were attacked and killed; where has that ever happened in this region? It was only after the demonstration that police saw demonstrators with gun and cutlass”.

It was at that time that the security forces went in, not a peaceful demonstration as envisaged, then the slogan turn out to be, “Bio must go and were matching towards the states house and Bio is the last name of the president of Sierra Leone. There are video clips and pictures to that effect and we call that peaceful demonstration? No”.

He recounted that, the president was not in the country, he the Speaker was in the country that morning around 9:30am and had a call from the vice president asking where he was, which he responded he was home.

According to him, he did not know what was happening in town, and the vice president invited him to his office and pointed out to him that, there was a problem in town and he had to rush to his office. “Before I got to his office, the whole place was like a war zone, thanks be to God the security forces were able to put everything under control”.

“The six police officers, who were killed, are they not human beings and don’t they have family? They left their wives and kids to go to work to protect peaceful demonstrators”. And indicated that when the whole situation was put under control the president initiated dialogue which involved every stakeholder in the country – chiefs, parliamentarians, disables and he continues to have those consultations. The president set up an independent committee to look into the issues of August 10, 2022 and they are still working”.

The committee is made up of well respected people and a committee recognized by all parties including the main opposition parties. Just last week they visited the site where the police officers were killed and where civilians were also killed, family members of the dead had consultation on how the burial ceremony should take place, he stated.

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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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