First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu says Ghana’s eighth parliament has become the worst in the country’s history with the recent actions of the minority caucus.
The Minority declared early this week that they are escalating their protest against the prosecution of Gyakye Quayson.
The new strategy is to continuously raise matters of quorum, literally shutting down the House every time.
According to the First Deputy Speaker, he thought a Parliament with equal numbers will be better, but it turned out to be the worse than the other parliaments.
Speaking to JoyNews on July 20, he said, “We have decided to do politics instead of business. This equal number in parliament has brought the worst in MPs, I have repeated it, I will repeat it again – this parliament, the eighth parliament has made the least number of laws.”
On Thursday, whilst the House considered bills including the Ghana UNESCO bill, it was evident that the House lacked a quorum to continue. This forced an early adjournment.
On the back of this, Mr Osei-Wusu said this parliament has not been effective as was the case in previous parliaments.
According to him, with more than a decade in parliament, there has never been a time where the absence of other colleagues in the house hindered the business of the day.
He stressed that the current parliament made it difficult for the leadership to control affairs in the house.
“Young people are in control; they look at things differently from the rest of us, so it is even good for them when their leaders agree to do it.
“Check the current parliament, it is always people from the back bench who come to raise this thing and not the leaders. What it means is that at this time in the parliament of Ghana, leaders don’t have control, the back bench has control,” he said.
Also, Trades and Industry Minister, KT Hammond expressed concern about the current trend adding that if this continues, parliament will be unable to get business done.
He described the action of the minority as mischievous and a clear sabotage of government business.
Mr Hammond stressed that the move by the minority has made it difficult for committee meetings to take place which has greatly affected the business of parliament.
However, the Chief Whip of the minority, Kwame Governs Agbodza says the minority caucus was doing the best it can to let the business of the house go on.
He added that his side of the house was not to be blamed for the delay in parliamentary business. He stressed that if all members of the minority were present, the agenda of the house would have continued.
Also, Tamale Central MP, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed said it is unfair for the majority to describe the actions of the minority as a frustration to the business of the house.
According to him, the business of the house is guided by the constitution and the standing orders, therefore, describing them as a hindrance to parliamentary business is wrong.
He added that on the contrary, the Majority Chief Whip has failed to get all members of the majority into the house for the business of the day to proceed.
SOURCE: myjoyonline.com
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