News:
June 16, 2021
Speaker of Ghana’s 8th Parliament, Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin said he would support any positive discrimination to get women take their rightful place in the Ghanaian governance system.
According to him the issue of women empowerment has been over flogged and lamented that over numerous talks on issue of women empowerment but no action is being carried out, and waiting for the affirmative action bill to be laid in Ghana’s Parliament.
He further noted that as a Parliament, some urgent provisions would be used to ensure the Bill is passed by the close of this year. “The Bill is still with the Executive and has not yet come to parliament, we are anticipating it comes this week”
Speaker Bagbin made this assertion when representatives of the various United Nations Agencies in Ghana called on him in his conference room on Monday, June 14, 2021.
And further pointed out that there is the need to engage various political parties, civil society organizations, Ghanaians as a whole to seek the key role that women can play in the human resource development of Ghana.
“I see men as the challenge to this whole thing and I do not understand why, I am a man, but I keep on saying it as we keep on claiming that they are our mothers and without them we are not there. If you conduct research anywhere and you ask any males to tell you both of the parents who supported his growth it is the mother, but how come that same mother is not being given that opportunity to lead?”
Again, I don’t understand, how married men would want to carry the whole load when the woman want to take part of the load from us, “I don’t understand”.
“I know the young men before they marry now want to ask the woman, if you are working, they want to know where she is working. Things would change soon”.
In addition, he pointed out that out of that, twelve (12) countries in Africa have met the UN 30 percent representation of females in Parliament with Rwanda leading by 61 percent, Ghana 14.5 percent, “yet we claim to be a model of democracy in Africa, I think it is horrible”.
And called for more effort to work better and together with the political parties to look at the Ghanaian laws, expressing his supports to the quota system.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com