Member of Parliament for Bekwai, Joseph Osei-Owusu has confirmed that he met the Dome/Kwabenya lawmaker Sarah Adowa Safo on Monday, November 29, 2021 at the presidency before the Tuesday, November 30, 2021 controversy where it was alleged in the media that, the one who appeared in the chamber was not Sarah Adowa Safo.
According to him last week Tuesday, before they came to the chamber both sides of the House had caucus meeting in the morning and he met the Dome/Kwabenya lawmaker twice at the Majority caucus meeting.
Sarah Adowa Safo
“We first met with the leaders, we went for a break and came back to address our members, went back to the meeting and came back to announce that we could not reach a consensus, and we were going back to the chamber. I personally saw Hon Adowa Safo so I do not know where people are coming from that she is not the one”.
And further pointed out that on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 when she was entering the chamber she was not wearing a face mask it was the, “ Majority Leader who advised that she takes her mask off so that there would be no more controversy on whether it is her or not; I can confirm that I saw her the Monday and Tuesday before we came to the chamber”.
And Wednesday, December 1, 2021 was when she spoke on the floor of the House, as photo and things can be manipulated, “I cannot speak to the photo that people are discussing”, he said on Joy News probe programme.
The First Deputy Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu in the wake of the brouhaha surrounding the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government, has challenged his colleagues in the Minority who are strongly opposed to the budget to provide Ghanaians with an alternative and leave Ghanaians to decide on the fate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government with their polices they introduce.
According to him the Minority has been having their say on critical issues that has to do with the welfare of Ghanaians, but the Majority is of the view that they heard their point and intend to take responsibility for their actions.
“The Minority should not insist that unless you do it our way, then you cannot govern or pass bill that is where I differ; tell Ghanaians we would do A, B and C if we were in government”.
Mr. Osei-Owusu made the remark in an interview on Joy News on Sunday, December 5, 2021. As to whether the Minority is giving him tough time, he noted that having been an MP for the past twelve years, they have always cooperated and “I know we are cooperating quite well”.
And was quick to point out that, it is rather the parties outside parliament who are trying to take hold and rather direct as to what the behaviour in parliament should be, “that in my view is where we are getting it wrong. I think MPs should stand firm and asses themselves, whatever decision we come to we would be held responsible”.
Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh has indicated that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) since its formation has a long history with an equally rich tradition. In a post on his Twitter handle, the Member of Parliament for Nsawam/Adoagyiri in the Eastern Region outlines that the ruling party was formed from the formation of the UGCC, the prime role of JB Danquah towards independence, as well as the love for the rule of law to fight against dictatorship, the tradition has been strong.
He writes “A unique feature of this tradition has been its inclusive nature, supported by the sacrifice and toil of Ghanaians no matter where they come from. In this regard, the Northern Caucus has been instrumental to our tradition’s development”.
“After the passage of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s Avoidance of Discrimination Act in 1957, the United Party was formed from the amalgamation of existing political parties. Despite, the Northern People’s Party has a much higher number of seats in parliament, Chief SD Dombo, Chief Bawumia, and others were magnanimous enough to allow Dr. KA Busia to emerge as the leader of the party.
“It was this magnanimity which laid the foundation and boosted Dr. Busia’s popularity to aid his subsequent efforts to become Prime Minister. It was under his tenure that President JA Kufuor got his first opportunity at governance as a deputy minister”.
“Again in 1979, when Victor Owusu was encumbered by trumped-up charges, it was Alhaji Yakubu-Tali, the PFP party chairman who became the face of the party. Canvassing across the length and breadth of the country to sell the PFP’s vision for the office. When Victor Owusu was discharged by the Commission of Enquiry, Alhaji Tali was gracious enough to allow him to become the party’s flagbearer without rancor, divisiveness, or bitterness, even though he had worked so hard. Though the PFP lost the election, Alhaji’s sacrifice and elevation of party unity over self were critical to the party’s future stability”.
“In the lead up to the 1992 elections, Roland Issifu Alhassan, a founding member of the party, in whose home the Tamale Danquah-Busia Club was launched, was selected as the running mate to Prof. Adu Boahen. After the stolen verdict of ’92, he could have contested the next primaries but declined. Given his influence within the party, his participation could have changed the course of events. He however declined, paving the way for JA Kufuor”.
“Throughout the history of our party, the Northern Caucus has consistently made sacrifices for the greater good. It will be dishonest to support the rhetoric of division that seeks to erase the contribution of the North to our party and country from pre-independence till date,” he concludes.
The Majority Chief Wipe Frank Annoh-Dompreh has hinted of the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta would be making an important statement on the 2022Budget Statement and Economic Policy of government.
The Majority Chief Whip in a tweeter post said “The Minister for Finance has taken time to listen to views and opinions on the 2022 budget. An important statement to this effect will be delivered to Parliament and the people of Ghana during the week.”
Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta
The 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of government has been a topic of discussion throughout the country since November 26, 2021 when parliament first took a decision on it, that is to say rejected it.
But the decision would be overturned and approved later; and now its fate hangs in the balance following another motion by the leader of the Minority Caucus, Haruna Iddrisu requesting for the approval to once again be overturned.
An attempt by Presiding Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu last Wednesday was fiercely objected to by the Minority who described the Speaker’s move as illegal.
A member of Ghana’s delegation to the Community Parliament said external influence on the Community’s 2022 draft consolidated budget would have serious consequences on the independence and autonomy of the Community’s institutions.
Mr. Ayariga was speaking in an interview following the presentation of the final report of the ‘Thirtieth Meeting of the Administration and Finance Committee (AFC)’ – held from 25th November – 2nd December 2021 at the ongoing ECOWAS Parliament’s Second Ordinary Session of 2021 (November 29th to December 18th, 2021) which contained the 2022 Draft Consolidated Community budget.
He made this remarks as Community lawmakers were presented with budget on Saturday, December 4, 2021 in Abuja Nigeria.
The Chairman of the AFC, ECOWAS Commission, Mohamed Nurudeen Ismaila said the proposed 2022 Draft Consolidated Community budget of ECOWAS Institutions is in the tune of African Development Bank Units of Account (UA) 394.110.921 (USD 541,941,927), and it is realistic, noting that “the budget is based on realistic figures on the initial income.”
The AFC final report captured in Item No. 9, ‘Presentation and Consideration of the 2022 Draft Consolidated Budget of ECOWAS Institutions,’ noting that, “The Commissioner for Finance, Halima Ahmed presented the draft 2022 consolidated budget of all the ECOWAS Institutions, except that of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), which are under the supervision of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers.”
The proposed 2022 Draft Consolidated Community budget described the total income of the 2021 approved budget at UA 398,044,626 and proposes for the year 2022 the amount of UA 394,110,921, with the finance of 1.0% (-3,933,705).
In addition it also captured a 47.9% constituting UA 183,891,363 from Community Levy, Year-End Bank Balances of UA 13,591,989 (3.4%), Arrears of Community Levy Proceeds of UA 72,987,460 (18.5%), Arrears of Contribution UA1,768,710 (0.4%),Other Income UA 798,130 (0.2%) and External Funding of UA 116,073,269 (29.5%).
According him, the amount of external funding influence on the proposed 2022 budget of the Community Institutions must be seriously considered as it tends to influence the ideologies and alignment of the Community by the external financiers.
“If you take a look at the proposed 2022 Community Budget, close to thirty percent of it is coming from external sources, even the budget of the institutions themselves, if you compare it to our own internally generated income from the community institutions – the income does not meet the threshold of our institutional total budget expenditure,” Mahama Ayariga said.
He added that, with close to thirty percent of the budget coming from external sources, you can’t guarantee the autonomy and independence of the ECOWAS bloc.
External forces give you money for nothing, they give you money for influence and so that you can toe ideological lines and pursue their interests. Nobody gives money for free.
Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament
And further said the basic budget of the ECOWAS must be met by the various countries themselves.
“If external funding is coming for programs and projects that I think you can manage the extent to which it can be used to mount pressure on the Community to pursue an interest that will not be truly aligned to the interest of the community. That’s why I raised a concern about how we can sustain our independence and autonomy if we are depending so much on external funding for budget,”
He said one way the Community will cut its over-reliant on external budgetary support is for the Member States to pay their levies.
And lamented that member states are not paying their levies, if they pay their levies, he believe that it would meet their basic institutional budget expenditure; adding that the Community has a choice not to be heavily dependent on external funding because they have a levy and the levy is enough to pay for their bills.
It is the view of the AFC that reading out the list of arrears owed by the Member States is inappropriate despite several calls by MEPs for them to disclose the information which they deem as an unpalatable diplomatic exercise.
Mr. Mahama Ayariga called for the list of member states in arrears to be read out at the Community Parliament and called on his colleagues to play a critical role in getting their countries pay their levies, “but if they don’t have the information, they won’t be able to pursue their governments back home. So, they need to be told that your country hasn’t paid”.
So that when they are home, they would push and monitor their national budgets to see whether a provision has been made and whether the various Finance Ministers are reporting that they are giving the money.
And it can be made a local national parliament issue to hold the Finance Ministers’ accountable for transferring the monies to the ECOWAS. But if you don’t have information, you can’t follow up from the Commission.
First Rapporteur of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Mahama Ayariga has called on the Authority of Heads of States and Government to review their stands on Mali and Guinea following the military takeovers in those two sub-regional countries.
On Mali, he pointed out in an interview that they have a real problem of governance that is not necessary going to be resolved by having a democratically elected government.
“I think the problems in Mali have to do with the entire state not being able to extend its authority to all parts of the Malian states”.
Authority of Heads of States and Government
Mr. Mahama Ayariga noted that what ECOWAS should be doing is helping the Malian state to build its governance infrastructure, and security infrastructure to be able to reach out to the entire Malian state, and exercise jurisdiction to deal with the problem of the terrorist, jihadist and the vast desert land that constitutes part of the Malian state.
Again, where the rebels are hiding and threatening the peace and security of the entire Malian state, it is that policing infrastructure which they do not have over their own state that they should look at whether it is a military regime or democratically elected regime, he stated.
“If we do not deal with this issues, if a democratically regime is put in place and we do not ensure accountability and fairness in governance, the mere fact that you have gone through an election and even the last issues we had with them, the way that democratically institutions are even used”.
For instance how the electoral system was abused to bring to parliament people who everyone thought they were not democratically elected, those are the real issues in Mali, he lamented.
Additionally, he noted that if you insist that the military must leave and they should go into an election, if those tendencies remain, if the existing government cannot police the entire Malian state, you have not solved the problem.
According to Mr. Ayariga, it is important to focus on the underlying causes of the problems in Mali, and then they can look at the issues of democracy. Even if we restore democracy, they should be interested in the quality of the democracy in the sub-region of the democratic institutions.
“If they go back to doing what they were doing that would encourage the military to step in, they would step in again. For me just being fancy about the timetable and not paying attention to the underlying issues does not solve the problem”.
In the wake of the Majority and Minority game of approving or rejecting the 2022 Economic policy statement of the government, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu has said the Minority mean well for Ghana.
According to him they mean well for the economy of the country and it is not their intention that the economy would collapse on any of them both the Majority and Minority, “not even on President Nana Akufo-Addo that cannot be my wish”.
Mr. Iddrisu said the President should govern with respect to the provisions of the 1992 Republic constitution of Ghana, and added that Ghana’s parliamentary democracy should not suffer but the business of the House should not be subjected to new standards on critical matters.
“We would vote if they are more than us they are more than us, if we are more than them so be it. The days where they disrespected us is over; the first Deputy Speaker who should hold the fort abandoned it along the line, now he said he is not a speaker. We should not get there, I have respect for him as an MP but we are all learning the lessons, it is not always the case that the majority would be more than us in the chamber in voting”.
At a press briefing on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 when the Minority challenged the Speaker for wanting to rule on their motion to overturn the rejection of the 2022 budget, the Minority Leader insisted that the Frist Deputy Speaker should have put the motion to a vote instead of ruling.
“Speaker Bagbin could not have been wrong in his ruling, they only walked out to avoid a vote lost because they were 137 and we were 137 less Adowa Safo. And again on quorum, if it is not raised, it is because we are masters of our own procedure under Article 110, business goes on”.
He emphasized that the walkout staged by the Majority signifies that they were disappointed in their own budget.
The Upper East caucus of Members of Parliament led by the former Deputy Minister of Interior under the John Dramani Mahama led government, James Algaga has appealed to indigenes from Bawku to give peace a chance.
Addressing the press on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, on the Bawku conflict which he described as an old conflict which again erupted on November 21, 2021, he said the Minister of the Interior imposed a curfew on Bawku and its environs and has managed to contain the situation.
peace and clam has return to the area.
“If you know Bawku it is a commercial town which borders Togo to the East and Burkina Faso to the North, and the strategic location of Bawku makes it the hub of trade in Ghana, at the Upper East. So when there is a conflict it affects all of us.
As the representative of the people in the Upper East Region, we wish to appeal to the chiefs and opinion leaders, civil society groups and all who matter in Bawku to work very hard towards fostering peace and unity”.
He added that the law enforcement agencies have been deployed following the imposition of curfew. They have done their best to ensure that some relative calm has returned to Bawku, and thanked the efforts the regional security council chaired by the Regional Minister in dealing with the unfortunate development.
The Builsa North lawmaker recounted that in the time past, the National Peace Council brought the feuding factions together and it is not too late for them to also help in the peace effort. “There can never be a winner or a looser in this conflict, what makes it compelling is that there is the need for unity in Bawku as they are interrelated”, he said.
They are family, you often hear of Kusasis and Manprusis, they are the same in terms of language and culture and when lineage is traced half Manprusie and Kusasis at the same time, it is needless to engage in conflict at this time, he emphasised.
In the light of consistent absence of the Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister, Sarah Adowa Safo to answer the question of Member of Parliament for Amenfi West, Eric Afful, the MP has indicated that he would take advantage of the appearance of the Minister on the floor on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 for his question to be answered.
In an interview with Ghanamps.com he pointed out that his question is a very important question that Ghanaians need an answer to.
The MP is seeking to know the steps being taken to remove children who are on the high street of Accra and other regional capitals, hawking, begging as these activities cause injuries, traffic congestion, and road accidents to road users.
Mr. Eric Afful noted that most of these children begging on the streets are foreigners mostly from Niger, Mali and Chard and other countries who are in town causing a lot of havoc, stealing from people and others.
“I want to know the status of those children and I want the government to let us know what they are doing with their situation. I want to know if they have a programme designed for them to stay in this country permanently.”
Again, with this question, Ghanaians would know what they are doing in town and further added that, the current New Patriotic government promised they were going to build a hostel for these people and most of them are kayayis.
“Let us know whether that hostel has been built, so that these children can occupy it. And also it was said that a school would be built to accommodate this children, it is an eye saw when you go to most of the countries in Africa you would not see some of these things”.
In addition, he pointed out that they are immigrants most of them cannot show their documents that they are Ghanaians, but they are causing havoc in the Ghanaian community, and they need to clear. “Let Ghanaians have a clear mind of what is happening with these people”.
Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu has categorically stated that, the first Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Joseph Osei Owusu did not have a voting right during the time of approving the 2022 annual budget, since the Standing Orders 109 (3) actually State that, “A Deputy Speaker or any member presiding shall not retain his original vote while presiding”.
According to him the NPP Majority claims they had 138 members to approve the budget but in this case, order 109 clause 3 disqualifies Joseph Osei Owusu from voting since he was in the chair as Speaker of Parliament but not as MP, therefore in actual sense, 137 NPP Majority member approved the budget but not 138 as they want people to believe.
Mr. Iddrisu added that, going forward, the NPP Majority in Parliament should prepare well, since they are not going to have things easy at all, because the NDC Minority is going to insist that, there is counting and voting on everything the House.
He made these comments at a press conference held in Parliament soon after the overturning of an earlier rejected 2022 budget and approving the budget, Tuesday, November 30, 2021.
“This would pass in history as a dark day for Ghana’s constitutional parliamentary democracy practice, those seeking to govern are seeking to appropriate and reprobate at the same time; we were not in the chamber because we rejected the 2022 budget on Friday which is reflected in the votes and proceedings; I am happy that the Majority Leader in his submission accepted that we are 137”.
Again, to avoid humiliating defeat, they walked out because they had 137 members like we also have and that would have led to a lost as we have in the constitution and standing orders, “who ask for a division and walks out?”
“Today I am disappointed in the conduct of the first Deputy Speaker having include himself and exercise a vote in other to meet their mandate 138 without respect to our standing orders and the 1992 constitution”.
Mr. Iddrisu indicated that the Majority side consulted their side on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 in the morning they ask us to approve the budget subject to concession; and questioned where the concessions were in the budget.
“If there were concessions, revise the budget to reflect those concessions; we stand with that position and should reflect in the text. And we had a stalemate on the matter of E-Levy. Our original position was that no, no, no to the levy, they explained to us the difficulties to the economy and needed some additional revenues. They said they were not prepared to review the E-Levy, and then we decided that they should stand alone with it. We asked them to adjust the threshold of 100 Ghana upwards they said they were not prepared to do that”.
All because we wanted to inherit a healthy economy in the foreseeable future by John Mahama in 2025, “we would address a full scale press conference at the appropriate time we needed to let Ghanaians know where we stand”.
In addition it also captured a 47.9% constituting UA 183,891,363 from Community Levy, Year-End Bank Balances of UA 13,591,989 (3.4%), Arrears of Community Levy Proceeds of UA 72,987,460 (18.5%), Arrears of Contribution UA1,768,710 (0.4%),Other Income UA 798,130 (0.2%) and External Funding of UA 116,073,269 (29.5%).
For instance how the electoral system was abused to bring to parliament people who everyone thought they were not democratically elected, those are the real issues in Mali, he lamented.
