Category: General

Ranking member of Ghana’s Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said if there were promotion of stronger Parliaments within the West African sub-region, it would have averted the return of coups that have occurred.

“We thought the era of coups is over, we are seeing what happened in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and the attempted coup, there are ones that are hanging on at the back ground; experts are warning that there is a lot of volatility. If you realised how the people took to the street jubilating and celebrating these coups it means there was something wrong about the democracy”, Mr. Ablakwa indicated.

According to him the sub-region is not providing the expected benefits people expect and if really the principles of separation of powers are working, the governance architecture is to be properly scrutinized.

He said “parliament somewhat may have to be blamed, that the parliaments in those countries did not carry out their mandate very well to demand for the Executive arm of government to be more responsive to the needs of the people”

Many people, he noted, are now realizing this, as he has been reading a lot on these developments. Experts, he said have advised that instead of focusing on the Executive with support,  it is better to support the Legislatures which have been left behind and have not been strengthened in the sub- region for a long time.

 He further noted that Ghana’s Parliament would be more than happy to be subjected to scrutiny. “We are public officials and once you are public official, you should be ready to open yourself up to be scrutinized, We are happy to collaborate with you, I hope when you are done with the Speaker, you would come to the committees and we would also like to have some relationship with you moving forward as CSO interested in Parliamentary business; we would be engaging more closely”, he added.

This came to light when, Africa Parliamentary Monitoring Organisation Network (APMON) called on him in Parliament on Thursday, March 31, 2022.

Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa in his message noted that Ghana’s Speaker has been emphasizing on openness of the parliament, transparency and accountability as Ghanaians and the international Community are looking up to Ghana.

He emphasized that there is a good reason why the Legislature plays an oversight over the Executive arm of government, and with the three arms of government it is the Legislature that leads in openness to ensure that the Executive arm of government is accountable and the resources put in their custody are utilised properly to the benefit of the citizens.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The Right Hon. Speaker, Alban Bagbin has apologized to the House particular members who were mostly affected by the errors in Tuesday, 29th March, 2022 Votes and Proceedings.
The Minority side of the House took strong exception to the errors in which eight (8) of their members that were present in the chamber and took part in proceedings were recorded absent.
According to them such errors on a day as important as the approval of a bill like the E-levy that has so much public interest was unpardonable because it caused so much disaffection for them from their constituents.
But commenting on the development on Thursday, 31st March, 2022, the Speaker who took full responsibility of the errors said; “If you look at the attendance book definitely, there are errors, I will take responsibility and apologize to members for these errors”.
He said there are no votes and proceedings anywhere that are perfect, adding that it is for that reason the draft is brought to the house giving opportunity to members to right the wrongs that they have been captured on the votes and proceedings.”
“So rightly you have come and corrected, what you have done is right, we will go through properly and correct the errors,” he said.
Mr. Bagbin, however, appealed to the general public not to take everything they read in the media hook line and sinker without verifying.
On the other hand, he commended the public for taking keen interest in the affairs of parliament, adding there is no democracy without a functioning parliament.
Meanwhile, the Minority led by Haruna Iddrisu, Okudzeto Ablakwa, and Mahama Ayariga have filed a Stay of Execution suit at the Supreme Court to challenge what they described as the illegal and unconstitutional approval of the E-levy, because in their view, the Majority did not have the right numbers to pass it.
“This is a charade,” he said at a press conference in Parliament, adding that “there is no E-levy.”
“The majority of less than 137 conducting businesses only proceeded on illegal and unconstitutional business. Parliament did not have the numbers to take any decision that should binding Parliament and Ghanaians,” he added.
Ghanamps.com

Member of Parliament for Ayawaso West Wuogon, Lydia Seyram Alhassan has commissioned an Astroturf at Abelemkpe in her constituency.

Joined by Sandra Owusu-Ahinkorah, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the area, the MP said the completion of the project means a lot to her in that when she started her political career in 2018 the youth of Abelemkpe who worn a football gala at Bawaleshie she promised them that the next gala that would be played would be done on an Astroturf.

“Since then I have committed myself to the realisation of this project and has been made possible by many stakeholders key among them is the President Nana Akufo-Addo and the Chief Executive Officer of the   Costal Development Authority lawyer Jerry Ahmed Shaib for helping the constituency achieve this dream”.

She further thanked opinion leaders and other stakeholders for the various roles they played adding that the facility would provide platform for not only youth development but also an avenue for building a strong bond and friendship among the people in the community towards achieving strong social cohesion in the constituency.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

President Nana Akufo Addo has given the clearest assurance that his government would complete the Agenda 111 projects by the end of his tenure. Delivering the State of the Nation Address, he said “we have every intention of seeing this project through to a successful end, which will enable me to commission all one hundred and eleven (111) hospitals before I leave office on 7th January 2025.

“Agenda 111 is an ambitious project, which must and will be done, and which will create some thirty-three thousand, nine hundred (33,900) jobs for construction workers, and, on completion, some thirty-four thousand, three hundred (34,300) jobs for health workers”.

According to him, like all major construction projects, it is evident that the initial schedule they gave for the completion of the Agenda 111 was overly ambitious. “Identifying suitable sites around the country, for example, has turned out to be even more problematic than had been anticipated. I am able to say that a great deal of the preparatory work has now been completed, and work has started at eighty-seven (87) of the one hundred and eleven (111) sites. I have been assured that preliminary work on the remaining twenty-four (24) sites is ongoing” he stated.

He said Agenda 111 is a product of the lessons learnt from the pandemic to dealing with such magnitude of health cases. “This pandemic exposed other shortcomings of our country, which have, undoubtedly, contributed to the anxieties that have befallen the nation. Agenda 111 was born out of this necessity to address some of these shortcomings. At the normal rate of growth, we are not likely to make up the deficit in our health facilities infrastructure for a very long time. Hence, the need for a special, dedicated programme of infrastructural development”.

Agenda 111 entails the construction of 111 entities, comprising standard 100-bed district hospitals for one hundred and one (101) districts without hospitals, with accommodation for doctors and nurses; six (6) new regional hospitals for each of the six (6) new regions; the rehabilitation of the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital in the Western Region; one (1) new regional hospital for the Western Region; and three (3) psychiatric hospitals for each of the three (3) zones of the country, i.e. North, Middle and Coastal.

Ghanamps.com

President Nana Akufo-Addo on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 delivered the long awaited message of the State of the Nation Address in giving an overview of the difficult times the country finds itself. According to him as a nation “we have started on a good footing by accepting that we are in a difficult place and are taking the difficult decisions that will get us out”. “The road to recovery would be hard and long” he admonished.

And if, anyone ever had any doubts about the need to be self-reliant, the point has now been forcibly drilled home to us. The pursuit of the Ghana beyond Aid agenda is even more compelling now, he stated. He further noted that he has no doubts whatsoever that as Ghanaians we have in us to build the Ghana of our dream and saw the spirit of togetherness and the willingness to help each other when COVID struck.

Again, look out for each other and saw the sense of enterprise and innovation of the Ghanaian, “I saw our manufacturers quickly adapt their plants to produce sanitizers and our tailors equally quickly displayed the innovation they had always been known for, by turning face masks into fashion items”.

“Let us, more than ever, hold our heads up high, and face the future with courage, hope and assurance and recall our age-old Ghanaian values of hard work, enterprise, solidarity, dignity and hospitality. Look around you, believe in Ghana, and be inspired by Ghana, we will bounce back together”.

According to the president, the world before COVID now seems such a long time ago, and the trauma of a world ruled by a pandemic has changed all our perspectives. “Back in March 2020 when the first cases of COVID hit our country, we and the rest of the world were in unchartered territory, fear and sheer terror gripped our land. Probably, to future generations, it will look quite obvious what should have been done, but, two years ago, it felt like we had fallen into a dark, malicious and terrifying abyss”.

We could not have been prepared for the catastrophe that hit us, even the richest economies with the most sophisticated structures were unprepared. Maybe some of us have forgotten what the experts were predicting at the time. Our health and medical infrastructure was woefully inadequate, and we would not be able to cope. There were going to be piles of dead bodies strewn across the streets of Africa.

He added that, he took the decision that would prioritize the saving of lives, and, then, we would get together to rebuild the economy. Nobody imagined the devastation would be so widespread and last so long.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

There was uproar in parliament on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 when the President of the Republic, H.E Nana Akufo Addo declared that his government has built more roads than any government in the history of the country. The President was presenting the state of the nation address in fulfillment of Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution to Parliament.

“Mr. Speaker, it is in the road sector that we have registered the greatest infrastructure achievement. I know that the word “unprecedented” is often used with careless abandon in our public discourse, but I use it carefully and purposefully. In the five years of my government, so far, more roads have been built, improved and upgraded than at any other equivalent period under any government in the history of Ghana”.

He emphasized that some ten thousand, eight hundred and seventy-five (10,875) kilometres of new roads have been constructed in these five (5) years. “Let me mention that yesterday, it was my honour and great pleasure to have commissioned the Tamale Interchange, the first such interchange in the northern sector of our country, which the people of Tamale celebrated.

I considered it to be a most satisfying birthday present. We intend to continue with the building of roads round the country to accelerate the opening up of our country”. The president’s declaration brought mixed reactions from the House with the Minority expressing surprise and disgust at the claim by the president while the Majority members hail the president for the claim.

Ghanamps.com

The Minority in parliament has once again abandoned proceedings in parliament after staging a walkout.
The Minority leader announced the walkout after his contribution at the second reading of the Electronic Transaction Bill, 2021.
He said the E-levy is the nuisance of nuisance tax that would affect businesses and bring untold suffering and hardship under this government.
“We are united that we will not support E-levy, we will not vote for E-levy.”
It was not clear why the Minority chose to walkout instead of staying to fully participate because it was believed that they have the numbers to reject the bill, particularly so when it was obvious one member from the majority side, Adwoa Sarfo, the Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya was absent.
Prior to this decision the Minority in contributing to discussions on the E-levy minced no words in reminding the government on their stand to reject the bill becasuse they thought it was a tax targeted at the poor and vulnerable in society.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta in moving the motion on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, said the government has reduced the rate from 1.75 to 1.5.
Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com

The back and forth, and all brouhaha surrounding the Electronic Transfer Levy Bill 2021, ended on Tuesday, March 29, 2022 when parliament passed the bill.
As has been the practice from when it was first introduced in parliament, the passage of the bill was not without issues.
The E-levy as it is usually referred got approved by a one sided majority side of the House after the Minority staged a walkout.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, during the second reading of the Bill, announced his side still stands opposed to the E-Levy, and as such announced a walkout from the chamber.
He said the E-levy is the nuisance of nuisance tax that would affect businesses and bring untold suffering and hardship under this government.
“We are united that we will not support E-levy, we will not vote for E-levy”, he emphasized.

The E-Levy seeks to impose a 1.50% levy on transactions, including Mobile money transfers done between accounts on the same Electronic Money Issuers (EMI), Mobile money transfers from accounts on one EMI to a recipient on another EMI, Transfers from bank accounts to mobile money accounts (either directly, GIP debit, bank cards or another scheme), Transfers from mobile money accounts to bank accounts (either directly, GIP debit, bank cards or another scheme) and Bank transfers originating from a bank account belonging to an individual.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta in moving the motion on the floor of the House indicated that “the objective of this bill is to broaden the tax base of this country by imposing the levy on electronic transfer and enhance the government’s drive for revenue mobilization” he noted is expected to raise some GH¢6.9 million in 2022 as a key mechanism that the government will use to ensure Ghanaians contribute their fair share towards the development of the country”.
Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com

A former Member of Ghana’s delegation to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Clement Kofi Humado is of the view that the opening of Ghana’s land borders was not well coordinated with its neighbours.
According to him information he has gathered with an address given by President Nana Akufo-Addo on the opening of the land borders on Monday, March 28, 2022 on the Ghana Togo border at Aflao indicates that the Togolese authorities were not officially informed about the opening of the Ghanaian land border.

“So movement of persons and goods was hampered and by the West African Health Organisation (WAHO) guidelines these activities should have been coordinated and supervised by WAHO and prior meetings involving all ECOWAS Foreign, Interior and Health Ministers”, he said in an interview.

Mr. Kofi Humado further noted that the opening of the land borders of Ghana was long overdue, but now that Ghana has announced the opening it’s not too late for the intervention of ECOWAS and WAHO.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

As part of fulfilling the Constitutional mandate of Article 67 of the 1992 Republican Constitution H.E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is billed to present a message on the State of the Nation Address on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, March 30, 2022.

Article 67 provides that, “The president shall, at the beginning of each session of Parliament and before a dissolution of Parliament, deliver to parliament a message of on the State of the Nation”.

In a statement issued by the Director of Public Affairs, Madam Kate Addo has noted that attendance to, and coverage of the event is strictly by invitation or accreditation.
Ghanamps.com