News:
March 30, 2020
Ranking member on Communication, A. B. A. Fuseini has taken a swipe at the Defense Minister Dominic Nitiwul for demanding that the Minority apologizes to Ghanaians for not showing up in the House on Saturday.
According to him, contrary to the very irresponsible effusions by the Minister, the Minority refusal to sit on Saturday has absolutely nothing to do with turning their backs on a coronavirus economic mitigation debate.
“Our checks revealed that only a World Bank coronavirus loan facility of US$35million was laid for later consideration. A remarkably bizarre spectacle in this time of crisis for a Government preaching ‘Ghana beyond Aid’”.
He noted that the Minority communicated to the Speaker and the entire House after making the same point at the Business Committee was that Parliament was being abused by the ruling majority for narrow political gain and noted that it is their only motivation to accumulate days for the Electoral Commission’s Constitutional Instrument on the December 2020 elections to mature.
And, further pointed out that MPs across the world including the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been affected by the COVID 19 and several of his colleagues, some twenty-three MPs in the Iranian Parliament out of which two have already died.
Per the Standing Orders of Parliament, sittings of the House are from Tuesdays to Fridays. Contrary to this, Mondays have been added which we have fully supported because we were made to believe that there was a lot to attend to on the agenda. As it turned out, not much business was ready for the House to conduct much to the frustration of even Mr. Speaker as many hours and days were literally wasted.
The Saturday sittings were an imposition and a blatant ambush by the majority in flagrant violation of parliamentary due process and conventions.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Minority remains a diligent, conscientious and patriotic group as has been our reputation and we are always ready to carry out our mandate to the people of Ghana. However, we refuse to be party to a crude abuse of the parliamentary process simply because all what is on the mind of the NPP Members is the next election and not protecting the lives of Ghanaians.
He further noted that their colleague Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa demanded that the Minister for Health be made to brief the House on the latest update in the war against COVID-19. Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa also appealed to the Speaker to welcome debate on a lockdown, take statements and urgent questions which Minority Members have long filed on this apocalyptic development in the history of humankind.
The official records of Parliament will bear us out that in the absence of any serious business in the House on Saturdays, the Minority rather resolved to better utilize Saturdays and Sundays by supporting public health education in our constituencies and by making significant donations towards defeating the pandemic seeing that Government’s response has so far been late and abysmal to say the least.
Mr.Ni
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghaanamps.com