News:
August 8, 2017
The Minority leader and Member of Parliament for Tamale South Haruna Iddrisu is lamenting over a practice where the Speaker of the House, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye is preventing the Minority leader the opportunity to ask more than three supplementary questions.
“Go back into the Parliamentary records and ask Majority leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, as then Minority if he did not have his time to ask a lot of supplementary questions more than five”?
The Speaker with his conduct is endangering Parliamentary democracy with this kind of stands he is taking on the floor of the House, he said.
According to the Tamale South legislator all over the World the Minority have had their say but this is not the case with Speaker Aaron Oquaye.
“I have been in Parliament long enough to appreciate that, we cannot have our way, but we will jealously protect our right to have our say and it should be respected”.
He noted that, throughout Ghana’s democratic history it is established that the Majority side is not interested in the oversight responsibilities because they belong to government.
Therefore it becomes the responsibility of the Minority to hold government accountable in the interest of Ghanaians.
Again preventing the Minority leaders quest ask supplementary question weakens the powers of Parliaments oversight, he said.
Today I am being denied the opportunity a precedent is being set, same will happen sometime to come if not checked. We will resist that and send a loud message to the Speaker, “he is the father of the Chamber, he needs to carry everybody on board”, he said.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com