Debates of 2 Nov 2021

MR SECOND DEPUTY SPEAKER
ANNOUNCEMENTS 11:30 a.m.
PRAYERS 11:30 a.m.
ANNNOUNCEMENTS 11:30 a.m.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:30 a.m.
Hon Members, we have received a
communication from the President
and it is addressed to the Rt Hon
Speaker and the House.

Communication
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:30 a.m.
Hon Members, we would move to
item numbered 4 on today's Order Pa- per, which is Correction of Votes and
Proceedings and the Official Report.
Votes and Proceedings and the
Official Report
Hon Members, page 1…12 --
rose
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:30 a.m.
Yes, Hon Member for North Tongu?
Mr Ablakwa 11:30 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I am
grateful. On page 12, I recall that it
was the Hon First Deputy Speaker
who was in the Chair at the time of ad-
journment and not the Rt Hon
Speaker, as has been captured here.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Page 13…14 -
Hon Members, the Votes and
Proceedings of the Fourth Sitting of
the Third Meeting of the First Session
held on Friday, 29th October, 2021 as
corrected are adopted as the true rec-
ord of the proceedings.
[Pause] --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Hon Majority Leader, I would want to
find out from you whether we have
any Official Reports for correction.
Do Hon Members have Official
Reports for correction?
Mr Habib Iddrisu 11:40 a.m.
Mr Speaker,
we do not have copies.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:40 a.m.
I
have with me the Official Reports of
30th June, 2021 and 1st July, 2021.
Very well, we would defer that
one as tabled and ensure that Hon
Members are supplied with the Offi-
cial Reports.
Hon Members, we would move
on to the item numbered 5 on today's Order Paper.
May I have the Hon Minister for
Employment and Labour Relations
take the appropriate seat and do us the
honours to answer the Questions?
Hon Members, we would move
on to the page numbered 3 of today's Order Paper and take the Question that
stands in the name of the Hon Member
for Domeabra/Obom Constituency,
the Hon Ms Sophia Karen Edem
Ackuaku.
Hon Member, the Hon Minister
is around to answer your Questions.
So, you may take the Floor to ask your
Question.
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUES- 11:40 a.m.
TIONS 11:40 a.m.
MINISTRY OF EMPLOYMENT 11:40 a.m.
AND LABOUR RELATIONS 11:40 a.m.
Mr Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Very well.
Hon Members, before the Hon
Minister answers the Question, I
would want to draw the attention of
Hon Members that the Answer has
been provided in the Order Paper Ad-
dendum.
Hon Minister for Employment
and Labour Relations (Mr Ignatius
Baffour Awuah) [MP]: Mr Speaker,
as the lead policy adviser to Govern-
ment on employment and labour re-
lated issues, it is appropriate that I re-
iterate the core mandate of my Minis-
try. The Ministry of Employment and
Labour
Relations exists to coordinate job cre-
ation interventions in all sectors of the
economy and promote harmonious in-
dustrial relations towards sustainable
development. Contrary to the widely
perceived notion that the sector cre-
ates direct productive sector jobs, the
sector rather coordinates employment
opportunities for decent work out-
comes.
Mr Speaker, since 2017 to date,
Government has been working assid-
uously to create various job opportu-
nities for Ghanaians particularly, the
youth across the length and breadth of
the country. As a result, a number of
jobs have been created through the im-
plementation of various Government
job creation interventions such as the:
1. Planting for Food and Jobs
Programme;
2. One District, One Factory
Programme;
3. Nations' Builders' Corp
(NABCO);
4. Youth Employment Pro-
gramme under the YEA; and
5. National Entrepreneurship
and Innovations Programme
In addition, the Government is in
the process of rolling out an Inter-
Ministerial Initiative on Job Creation.

This initiative seeks to strengthen

coordination of job creation efforts

across the sectors. An estimated one

million jobs are expected to be created

for the youth out of this initiative be-

tween now and 2024 and the good

people of Domeabra Obom Constitu-

ency would be a beneficiary of this

GH¢1.0 billion initiative. The Gov-

ernment would soon outline this major

policy statement to the House.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Hon Member, any supplementary
question?
Ms Ackuaku 11:40 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I
would like to find out from the Hon
Minister how his Ministry coordinates
with other State institutions to create
jobs for the youth in the Domea-
bra/Obom Constituency.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Before the Hon Minister comes in, let
me hear you Hon Member for
Okaikwei Central.
Mr Patrick Yaw Boamah 11:40 a.m.
Mr
Speaker, this is a House of rules. The
Question has been duly answered by
the Hon Minister. Therefore, by the
rules, the Hon Member's supplemen- tary questions are supposed to ask
questions that elucidates further an-
swers. The Hon Member's supple- mentary question qualifies as a first
Question and not a supplementary
question. So, we should go by the
rules.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Hon Deputy Minority Leader, let me
hear you.
Mr James Klutse Avedzi 11:40 a.m.
Mr
Speaker, the Hon Member is com-
pletely out of order.
Mr Speaker, to determine
whether the question is a supplemen-
tary one or not does not lie in his
hands. So, he is out of order. Is he say-
ing that the Hon Speaker is not capa-
ble of determining such? Therefore,
he should sit down and let the Hon
Speaker determine so.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Hon Sophia, please, you may repeat
your supplementary question.
Ms Ackuaku 11:40 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the
Hon Minister stated that his Ministry
does not create jobs, but he coordi-
nates with the State agencies. There-
fore, I would want to find out how he
coordinates with the other State insti-
tutions that he talks about to create
jobs for the youth in the Domea-
bra/Obom Constituency. [Interrup-
tion] --
Oral Answers to Questions
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Hon Members, order!
Hon Minister, are you minded to
answer the question?
Mr Awuah 11:40 a.m.
Mr Speaker, with all
due respect, I would want to re-echo
the point that I made. I said that our
Ministry is responsible for coordinat-
ing -- [Interruption] -- Hon Mem- bers should take it easy.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Hon Members, please, order!
Mr Awuah 11:40 a.m.
Mr Speaker, we are
responsible for coordinating all Gov-
ernment's efforts toward job creation, and we do so by asking them to report
to us. We also supervise the job crea-
tion activities within the various Min-
istries to ensure that indeed the reports
that we get reflect the reality on the
ground.
Ms Ackuaku 11:40 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I
would like to find out from the Hon
Minister if he is aware that the youth
in the Domeabra/Obom Constituency
have not benefited from the Planting
for Food and Jobs Programme, as well
as the One District, One Factory Pro-
grammes.
Mr Awuah 11:50 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I find it
strange to believe that the people of
Domeabra/Obom did not benefit from
PFJ. I will investigate, and get back to
you. I am not aware of her constituents
not being involved.
Mr Murtala Muhammed Ibra-
him: Mr Speaker, the Hon Minister
has indicated that he will find out. Hon
Members would want to know specif-
ically when he would feed this House
with information with regard to the in-
ability to create jobs for the people of
that constituency.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:50 a.m.
Hon Member, do you consider this as
a supplementary question?
Mr M. M. Ibrahim 11:50 a.m.
It is an ex-
cellent supplementary question.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:50 a.m.
Hon Minister, can you give us time-
lines?
Mr Awuah 11:50 a.m.
Mr Speaker, as I in-
dicated, we are not the main imple-
menters of PFJ; it is being imple-
mented by the Ministry of Food and
Agriculture. I would have to link up
with them, get the exact information
on the ground, and get back to this
House.
Mr Sampson Ahi 11:50 a.m.
Mr Speaker,
from the Answer given by the Hon
Minister, he said 11:50 a.m.
Oral Answers to Questions

“In addition, the Government is in the process of rolling out an In-

ter-Ministerial Initiative on Job

Creation.”

Can the Hon Minister be specific

to tell this House when this initiative

would start?
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:50 a.m.
Hon Members, when you look at Hon
Ackuaku's Question, it was specific to her constituency. Anyway, since it is
on employment, we can diversify to
other areas.
Hon Minister, Hon Members in-
sist on timelines. Can you tell us
something?
Mr Awuah 11:50 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I indi-
cated in the Answer that it would be
out-doored in this particular House.
The next major policy statement to be
delivered in this House would be the
Budget Statement, and it would be in
there.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:50 a.m.
I
will take the last supplementary ques-
tion from the Hon Deputy Minority
Leader.
Mr James Klutse Avedzi 11:50 a.m.
Mr
Speaker, on page 5 of the Order Paper
Addendum, the Hon Minister indi-
cated:
“In addition, the Government is in the process of rolling out an In-
ter-Ministerial Initiative on Job
Creation.”
Is it a confirmation that five years
into power, Government is now in the
process of rolling out an inter-ministe-
rial initiative? [Pause]. Mr Speaker,
my supplementary question comes
from the Answer provided by the Hon
Minister.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:50 a.m.
Hon Deputy Minority Leader, please,
allow me to take some of the deci-
sions. I will not admit that question; it
is overruled.
Hon Minister, we thank you very
much for attending upon the House to
answer Questions from Hon Mem-
bers. We are grateful. You are hereby

Is the Hon Minister for National

Security around?

Mr Alexander Kwamena

Afenyo-Markin: Mr Speaker, he is,

and he will join us in a moment.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 11:50 a.m.
Hon Members, we are supposed to
have Hon Ofori Asiamah, the Hon
Minister for Transport to be here to
answer Questions. Unfortunately, he
Oral Answers to Questions

is caught up in Kumasi in other issues

concerning transport policy. We know

the Hon Asiamah has always been re-

sponsive to our Questions. Therefore,

we will hold brief for him. He has

asked that we reschedule his Ques-

tions. He will come and answer. Hon

Members, just take it in good faith.

In the meantime, the Hon Minis-

ter for National Security is around so

he will --
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim noon
Mr
Speaker, with all due respect, we have
only one Parliament of Ghana, and
this is it. The Hon Asiamah is the Hon
Minister for Transport, and he has
been summoned by Hon Members of
Parliament to respond to Questions
which pertain to his sector. Mr
Speaker, this phrase, “the Minister has been invited to perform an equally im-
portant” -- Nothing can be more im- portant to his ministerial function than
responding to parliamentary Ques-
tions.
Mr Speaker, before we com-
menced this Meeting, meetings were
held. Even when we started, the Rt
Hon Speaker sent a caution that we
have only nine weeks in this Meeting.
Therefore, Hon Ministers must priori-
tise their activities to Parliament. I
find it very strange that the Hon Min-
ister is attending to another assign-
ment.
Mr Speaker, if we continue enter-
taining such excuses, a time will come
when we would spend tax payer's money to come and sit here, and Hon
Ministers will just write to us that they
are performing other functions. Mr
Speaker, with all due respect, when
should the Question be rescheduled?
We have only nine weeks, and this is
budget Meeting. Very soon, we may
not have time. Even the Business
Committee would bring a directive
that going forward, because of the
Budget Statement and the work load
on us, Question time should be sus-
pended. When that happens, Hon
Members would not have the oppor-
tunity to perform their oversight func-
tions.
Mr Speaker, we do not want to
pick and choose. We did this to the
Hon Minister for Finance, and we
must do it to all the other Hon Minis-
ters so that they prioritise Parliament.
It is because of them that we are here.
Mr Speaker, there are only 86 Hon
Ministers out of 30.8 million Ghana-
ians. There are a lot of people here
who wanted to be Hon Ministers, and
they are very punctual. Mr Speaker, if
some Hon Ministers do not have time,
we have a lot of Hon Colleagues here.
Make him the Minister for Food and
Agriculture in charge of PFJ. Even

Oral Answers to Questions

Mr Speaker, in winding up, I

would like this House to take a defi-

nite position that Ministers of State

should not take us for granted. And

when we invite them - Mr Speaker, you could see that the Minister for Na-

tional Security told us that about 11.30

a.m., he would be here. He has priori-

tised us and he has come. I believe

other Ministers would take a cue from

that.
Mr Speaker, I end here noon
None

Hon Deputy Majority Leader

(Mr Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-

Makin): Mr Speaker, I think the Hon

Deputy Minority Whip got the excuse

of the Hon Minister wrong. He had in-

dicated to the Table Office that the

communication of our summons actu-

ally got miscommunicated and it was

rather late so; it would rather be unfair

to unduly blame him because at the

time the communication got to him,

this policy meeting had been sched-

uled. So, he pleaded that since we

have just brought this to his attention,

we should please give him up to

Wednesday so; he is not saying that he

would not come at all. No, he has not

said so but I think the communication

was where the problem was, so; please

-- [Interruption] -- because it was just brought to his attention that the

Question had been scheduled for to-

day so that is where the communica-

tion was a problem. And we know, the

Table Office is not allowed to join in

our debate; this is an administrative

matter, let us deal with it administra-

tively and ensure, now that he has

been put on notice, that true to his

word, he gets back to the House to-

morrow to deal with the matter.

Mr Speaker, you know that the

Hon Asiamah has always attended

upon this House. And I think the Hon

Ahmed Ibrahim must allow the space

for the Hon Minister for National Se-

curity to carry on; he is here.
rose
Mr Second Deputy Speaker noon
Very well, Hon Murtala, what else?
Mr Murtala noon
Mr Speaker, I
would not have commented on this is-
sue but the fact he had to abandon his
responsibility to answer Questions de-
manded by the people of this country
in this House in place of a meeting
which we do not know, as far as I am
concerned, there cannot be any im-
portant meeting or a schedule that the
Minister should be attending to than
answering Questions. The Members
of Parliament are demanding the re-
sponse from the Hon Minister for and
on behalf of the people of this country;
there cannot be any excuses; and this
attempt to tell us that the Hon Minister
Oral Answers to Questions

is someone who is forthcoming, in my

view, it is neither here nor there.

I think that there should be sanc-

tions, not only to this Minister but to

any other Minister who would disre-

gard his core responsibility deliber-

ately; I mean this denial of the constit-

uents to have an appreciation of the

Questions they are asking, I think is

unacceptable.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker noon
Hon Members, I think Mr Speaker
himself alluded to this particular issue
when we came back. I just put in a
word in respect to Hon Ofori Asi-
amah. Personally, I observed him very
responsive to this House so, if today
he is not here, please, I am not taking
away whatever comments Hon Mem-
bers have made, but I am just saying
that this particular Minister has been
very responsive to this House. We
hope Questions to him are going to be
answered in due course.
So, Hon Members, let us allow
the Hon Minister for National Secu-
rity to respond to a Question from a
Member of this House, that is the Hon
Peter Lanchene Toobu, MP for Wa
West.
Hon Member, the Minister for
National Security is around; you may
take the Floor and ask your Question.
NATIONAL SECURITY noon
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:10 p.m.
Hon Members, I believe that we have
been given an elaborate Answer, so I
think that we would not have any sup-
plementary questions.
rose
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:10 p.m.
Hon Member, do you have supple-
mentary questions?
Mr Toobu 12:10 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I do
have some supplementary questions.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:10 p.m.
Very well.
Mr Toobu 12:10 p.m.
Borrowing Mr
Speaker's words, I thank the Hon Minister for the very elaborate An-
swer.
Mr Speaker, the life of a Police
Officer is so crucial to the point that
when Government promised to con-
nect CCTV cameras to all Police Sta-
tions, it was quite an exciting time.
Could the Hon Minister give us a
timeline as to when this project would
be completed, so that every Police Of-
ficer sitting in any police station in
this country would feel that he is con-
nected to a particular emergency cen-
tre and his life is protected by the
State?
Oral Answers to Questions
Mr Dan-Dapaah 12:10 p.m.
Mr Speaker,
the Hon Member is right that it would
be in everybody's interest if we were to have CCTV cameras in all the po-
lice stations in this country. That is the
objective we are working towards. We
hope that we would have a third
Phase, but in this second Phase that we
are working on, as I said, we have
some 900 police stations across the
country.
In this phase, we would provide
CCTV cameras for all the 432 re-
gional, divisional and district police
stations, out of the 900. We are unable
to provide for all the police stations in
Ghana. That is the objective and we
hope that we would reach there under
Phase 3, but in this particular phase,
we would be unable to reach all the
Police Stations.
Mr Toobu 12:10 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank
you very much and I thank the Hon
Minister for attending upon the
House. I would not ask further ques-
tions because I know his capacity and
I believe that he would do better.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:10 p.m.
Thank you, Hon Member.
Hon Member for Ellembele?
Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi
Buah: Thank you, Mr Speaker.
In the Hon Minister's Answer, he stated that the first Phase had suffered
logistical delays due to COVID-19
and as a result, the completion date
has been moved to December 2021.
He also stated that there are subse-
quent phases being planned. What
was not stated was where we are,
when the other phases would start and
whether there is funding available.
Could the Hon Minister provide the
answers?
Mr Kan-Dapaah 12:10 p.m.
Mr Speaker,
we hope to complete everything in the
ongoing second Phase by the end of
December 2021 - this year. Thereaf-
ter, we hope that we can have a third
Phase. As I said, today, we are doing
only about one camera per thousand
persons and it is not good enough. We
hope that we would get into a third
Phase but we have still not come to the
House to give details of the third
Phase. At the appropriate time, we
would come to the House to give de-
tails and ask for the support and per-
mission of the House to undertake the
third Phase, which we believe would
add many more cameras to what we
have now.
Remember that by the end of the
year, we would have about 10,800
cameras. We started with 800 and it
was a very beautiful project. Some-
body had the foresight to do that and
Oral Answers to Questions

without these CCTV cameras, our

ability to fight crime is extremely lim-

ited. So, it was quite a good effort

we started. We have been able to add

10,000 and we are hoping that we can

add much more during the third Phase

with the support of this honourable

House.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:10 p.m.
Let me come to the Hon Member for
Ketu South.
Ms Abla Dzifa Gomashie 12:10 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, I would like to know from
the Hon Minister if there is any part of
the data that he could share with this
House that is not going to affect their
primary work but assist us as Legisla-
tors and major stakeholders, to help
him address some of the issues that are
captured through these cameras.
I say this because if, for example,
there is high crime in my constitu-
ency, if I know some parts of this in-
formation, I would be guided to in-
clude the information in my engage-
ment with the community, so that we
become a part of the institution that
you serve and also help address the is-
sues that arise out of that.
Mr Kan-Dapaah 12:10 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I
am unable to disagree with the Hon
Member. I think that this is something
that we would discuss with the House
Committee and see whether it would
be advisable for us to do that.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:10 p.m.
Very well.
Let me come to the Hon Member
for Okaikwei Central.
Mr Patrick Yaw Boamah 12:20 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, thank you very much.
Mr Speaker, I would like to refer
the Hon Minister to paragraph 9 of his
Answer on the Order Paper Addendum
which stated that:
“Currently, the Police have some 900 police stations in total opera-
tional across the country and this
Phase 2 project is providing
CCTV coverage for all 432 Re-
gional, Divisional and District
Police stations out of the 900…''
Mr Speaker, if we subtract the
432 from the 900, there would be a re-
mainder of 468 police stations unat-
tended to under this programme. So, I
want to find out from the Hon Minis-
ter what steps he has taken to capture
the remaining police stations on the
programme.
Mr Kan-Dapaah 12:20 p.m.
Mr Speaker,
we do have about 900 police stations
in total in the country out of which 432
are regional, divisional and district
police stations. We hope to capture the
Oral Answers to Questions

remaining 468 in the third Phase when

the House gives us approval to roll it

out sometime this year.

Mr Samuel Okudzeto

Ablakwa: Mr Speaker, for the record,

we need to commend the Hon Minis-

ter and the Government for the contin-

uation of this project which started in

2012. However, I want to find out

from the Hon Minister if he could

share with this House the total cost of

this project so far.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:20 p.m.
Hon Member, I would not admit this
question. You could file a separate
Question so that you could get elabo-
rate answer as has been provided by
the Hon Minister.
Mr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije 12:20 p.m.
Mr Speaker, in the Hon Minister's an- swer, he indicated that “somebody in his wisdom started this project'' and it has come this far. However, he did not
provide the name of the person and
since this is a House of record, we
need to know who initiated this pro-
ject.
Mr Kan-Dapaah 12:20 p.m.
Mr Speaker,
this is one of the most useful projects
that has been undertaken in this coun-
try and I would always be grateful and
thankful to whoever came up with the
idea. I do not really know who came
up with the idea, but it was during the
Administration of the National Demo-
cratic Congress (NDC) Party and I be-
lieve it must have been the Hon Min-
ister for National Security, the na-
tional security advisor or the national
security coordinator. It could be one
of them - however, somebody initi- ated it. [Interruption] -- it has been confirmed that it was an excellent idea
and it was beautifully carried out.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:20 p.m.
Hon Minister, thank you for attending
upon the House to answer our Ques-
tions. We are grateful to you. You are
discharged.
Hon Members, we have a num-
ber of Statements and the first one
stands in the name of the Hon Member
for Offinso South, Dr Yaw Opoku, on:
“The unprecedented achieve- ment of cocoa production in
Ghana: COCOBOD deserves
commendation''.
Hon Member, you have the
Floor; you may read your Statement.
Mr A. Ibrahim 12:20 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the
Rt Hon Speaker has mentioned early
on that before Hon Members make
Statements, they should give copies of
their Statements to other Hon Mem-
bers so that we would make meaning-
ful contributions.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:20 p.m.
Hon Member, whether it was said or
Oral Answers to Questions

not, I think it is proper that -- Hon Member, if copies of your Statement

have not been distributed to other Hon

Members, it should be done quickly.

However, you could read your State-

ment as the copies are distributed.
STATEMENTS 12:30 p.m.
Dr Isaac Yaw Opoku (NPP -- Offinso South) 12:30 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank
you for granting me the opportunity to
make a Statement on the unprece-
dented achievement of cocoa produc-
tion in Ghana.
Mr Speaker, at the close of the
2020/2021 crop season, graded and
sealed cocoa beans purchased by
Ghana COCOBOD stood at one mil-
lion, forty-five thousand, five hundred
per metric tonnes (1,045,500) thus
breaking the 10-year old record of one
million twenty-four thousand, five
hundred and twenty-six metric tonnes
(1,024,526) set in the 2010/2011 crop
year. Interestingly, it was the crop
year that had serious global challenges
including the adverse impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic and the global
financial meltdown.
Mr Speaker, Ghana COCOBOD,
our gallant cocoa farmers and indeed,
all our cherished stakeholders of the
cocoa industry whose toil and im-
mense sacrifices have made this his-
toric feat possible deserve high com-
mendation.
Mr Speaker, history tells us that
the first recorded export of cocoa
beans from Ghana was in 1891 and a
total of 36.3 tonnes was exported.
Ghana became the world's leading
producer of cocoa in 1910 and for 66
years (1910-1977), Ghana remained
the world's leading producer of cocoa
with production reaching an all-time
peak of 580,869 tonnes in 1964/1965
and market share ranging from 30-40
per cent. Thereafter, production
started to decline and reached the low-
est level of 158,956 tonnes in
1983/1984 which constituted just 9
per cent of the world's production.
Mr Speaker, the unprecedented
level of cocoa production we are wit-
nessing today is as a result of prag-
matic programmes and initiatives by
Ghana COCOBOD. First was the Na-
tional Cocoa Diseases and Pests Con-
trol programme (CODAPEC) popu-
larly known as “Mass Spraying” in the
2000/2001 crop season to control im-
portant diseases and pests of cocoa
and secondly, the “High-Technology”
(Hi-tech) programme in 2003/2004 to
improve the soil fertility in cocoa
farms.

Mr Speaker, as a result of the

Mass Spraying and the Hi-Tech pro-

grammes, production increased from

389,772 tonnes in 2000/2001 at the in-

ception of the programme to 735,266

tonnes in 2003/2004 and an all-time

high of 1,024,526 metric tonnes in

2010/2011 crop season.

Unfortunately, Mr Speaker, pro-

duction started declining once again

from 2011/2012 crop season mainly

because of the devastating effect of

the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Dis-

ease (CSSVD), over-aged and unpro-

ductive farms, illegal mining, smug-

gling and the decline in population of

the insects (Forcipomyia species) re-

sponsible for the natural pollination of

cocoa. Between 2011/2012 and

2019/2020 seasons, production

dropped from over 1,000,000 metric

tonnes to an average of 842,478 met-

ric tonnes annually.

Mr Speaker, Ghana COCOBOD,

once again, introduced new productiv-

ity enhancement programmes to ad-

dress the emerging challenges. CO-

COBOD has demonstrated that it is

possible to increase productivity per

hectare significantly without neces-

sarily expanding the area of land un-

der cultivation.

The control of CSSVD which is

ongoing in all the seven cocoa grow-

ing regions in the country has contrib-

uted immensely towards the growth of

the cocoa industry. So far, 35,000 hec-

tares of CSSVD affected areas have

been treated and replanted with high

yielding and disease tolerant planting

materials. Some of these new plant-

ings, particularly those in the Western

North Region, have started bearing

and are contributing significantly to-

wards the current unprecedented level

of cocoa production.

Over-aged and unproductive

farms are also being rehabilitated.

Mr Speaker, hand pollination

was one of the key productivity en-

hancement programmes introduced by

COCOBOD in the 2016/2017 crop

season. Mr Speaker, the hand pollina-

tion programme has become over-

whelmingly successful. The average

yields of pollinated farms have in-

creased from 250-450 kg/ha to 700-

2500kg/ha.

Another important productivity

enhancement programme was the

Mass Pruning programme introduced

in the 2017/2018 crop season. In the

2020/2021 season, the Mass Pruning

exercise was scaled up to cover 100

per cent of all productive cocoa farms

in the country using motorised prun-

ers. The positive effect of the Mass

Pruning exercise was abundantly evi-

dent throughout the country. It did not

only boost flower production, it also

Statements

naturally controlled important fungal

diseases, particularly the severe form

of the black pod disease, mistletoes

and other important pests.

Mr Speaker, as a result of the

change in population dynamics of

some important pests on cocoa, Ghana

COCOBOD reviewed the Mass

Spraying programme in 2017/2018

crop season to include an early appli-

cation of insecticide in April/May.

This new spraying regime targeted the

control of some emerging pests, par-

ticularly the sucking insects such as

Pseudotheraptus devastans and Bathy-

coelia thalassina which were responsi-

ble for some significant losses of both

mature and immature pods.

In order to improve microbial ac-

tivity in the soil, COCOBOD also

banned the indiscriminate application

of herbicides on cocoa farms which

hitherto was destroying micro and

macro fauna and flora and the accu-

mulation of organic matter.

Mr Speaker, climate change and

its associated menace to agriculture

keep threatening efforts at increasing

cocoa productivity in Ghana. Conse-

quently, COCOBOD introduced the

pilot irrigation programme in 2017 to

address the soil moisture stress in co-

coa farms. The main objective was to

provide continuous supply of mois-

ture to cocoa trees to ensure high

productivity all year round. A good

number of farms and seed gardens

have benefitted from the irrigation

programme.

Mr Speaker, the implementation

of the Living Income Differential by

Ghana COCOBOD in the 2020/2021

crop season was a huge boost to cocoa

production.

The Living Income Differential re-

sulted in an unparalleled rise in cocoa

producer price from GH¢515 per bag

of 64 kilograms to GH¢660 represent-

ing a whopping 28 per cent increase.

The introduction of the electronic

scales at all buying centres across the

country has also given farmers the as-

surance that the long standing scale

manipulation menace usually perpe-

trated by purchasing clerks has come

to an end. Farmers are now guaranteed

value for money.

Mr Speaker, COCOBOD has

made cocoa farming very attractive.

The much anticipated Cocoa Farmers' Pension Scheme has started in the

Western South and Ashanti Region

and its expansion to the other regions

is a matter of course. This scheme will

help our cherished cocoa farmers en-

joy decent and sustainable pension

when they retire from active cocoa

farming.

In conclusion, Mr Speaker, we

say well done to COCOBOD, well

done to our cherished cocoa farmers,

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and well done to all the industry play-

ers. We encourage all the stakeholders

to continue to work hard to sustain the

new level of productivity. We also

hope that COCOBOD will put in the

necessary measures to address the de-

lays in payment of cocoa purchases

which characterised the 2020/2021

crop season.

Mr Speaker, once again, I thank

you for the opportunity.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:30 p.m.
Hon Members, as you know, this is a
Statement and should not engender

Hello, Hon Members, I am just

cautioning us. We are going to allow

Hon Members who are desirous to

comment to do so, but I am saying it

should not engender debate.

Hon Members, let me invite Hon

-- [Interruption.] --

Yes?
Mr Bernard Ahiafor 12:40 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, I thank you for the oppor-
tunity. I need your guidance on the
rule. To my understanding, the State-
ment is made under Order 72. Now, a
Statement made under Order 70(2) by
a Minister is supposed to provoke de-
bate. If I may read the Order 70(2),
with your permission:
“A Minister of State may make an announcement or a statement
of government policy. Any such
announcement or statement
should be limited to facts which
it is deemed necessary to make
known to the House and should
not be designed to provoke de-
bate at this state. Any Member
may comment briefly, subject to
the same limitation.”
Now, Standing Order 72 says and
I quote with your permission:
“By the indulgence of the House and leave Mr. Speaker a Member
may, at the time appointed for
statements under Order 53(Order
of Business) explain a matter of
personal nature or make a state-
ment on a matter of urgent public
importance. Any statement other
than a personal statement may be
commented upon by other Mem-
bers for a limited duration of time
not exceeding one hour. The
terms of any such proposed state-
ment shall first be submitted to
Mr. Speaker”.
Mr Speaker, so, my understand-
ing is that this Statement is made by
an Hon Member under Standing Order
72. Therefore, the idea that such a
Statement is not to provoke debate, is
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not within the ambit of our Standing

Orders and for this reason, I seek your

guidance on this issue.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:40 p.m.
Hon Member, what you read is just to
allow Hon Members to comment and
this was just something harmless that
we should not debate on because I
could sense the views of the Members.
So, what you read does not guar-
antee time for debate. My ruling is that
Hon Members may comment but not
to make their comments engender de-
bate.
rose
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:40 p.m.
Hon Minority Leader, are you about to
comment on the Statement or --?
Mr Avedzi 12:40 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I would
like to seek your opinion on the guid-
ance given that our comments should
not provoke debate but if the State-
ment itself provokes debate by using
the word; “unprecedented”, it is de- batable. What do you say to this State-
ment? This is because the Statement
itself provokes debate. Now, Hon
Members, in commenting, would dis-
agree with the statement that what this
Statement is about cannot be de-
scribed as “unprecedented” and so, in that case, Hon Members would be de-
bating.
Mr Speaker, what is your guid-
ance on this?
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:40 p.m.
Hon Minority Leader, we are on the
same page. I insist that Hon Members
should comment but if their comment
is going to be contrary to what the
Statement says, that is fair enough.
However, I am saying that we should
not provoke debate on this matter. My
ruling is that Members are allowed to
comment.
So, Hon Member for --
Hon Member, are you ready to
speak? [Interruption].
Dr Augustine Tawiah 12:40 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, I yield to the Hon Ranking
Member.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:40 p.m.
Hon Members, please allow me to
steer the affairs. Hon Doctor, are you
ready to speak?
Dr Augustine Tawiah 12:40 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, I yield to the Hon Ranking
Member on the Committee on Food,
Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:40 p.m.
I
am going to give the Hon Eric Opoku
the opportunity to speak but I first and
foremost saw - Hon Members, -- [In-
terruption.] -- Hon Eric Opoku will
definitely speak please.
Statements
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 12:40 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, considering the nature of the
Statement, I think that Leadership
must assist you in maintaining order
in the House. If we could agree on
three or four from each Side.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:40 p.m.
Hon Member, I am allowing two from
each Side and then the Leadership can
also add up. Hon Eric Opoku will
speak but will not start --
Mr A. Ibrahim 12:40 p.m.
Mr Speaker, on
such Statements, I think Hon Mem-
bers must make contributions that will
assist the sector Ministers in formulat-
ing their policies and so, if we could
have both the Hon Ranking Member
and his deputy and one other Members
to add up to three from each Side. This
would go a long way to help Govern-
ment.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:40 p.m.
Hon First Deputy Whip, I am saying,
three from each Side including Lead-
ership; that is, two Members plus a
Leader. That is fair enough.
Mr A. Ibrahim 12:40 p.m.
Mr Speaker,
thank you.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:40 p.m.
Hon Eric Opoku, you are not starting
with the contributions, please.
Mr A. Ibrahim 12:40 p.m.
Mr Speaker, if
the ruling is three on each Side, then it
means that the Whips have the oppor-
tunity to give you names.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:40 p.m.
Very well.
Mr A. Ibrahim 12:40 p.m.
Mr Speaker, in
that regard we will have Hon(s) Eric
Opoku, Sampson Ahi and Kwabena
Mr Eric Opoku (NDC -- Asunafo South) 12:40 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank
you very much for the opportunity to
comment on the Statement made by
our Hon Colleague on the other Side.
Mr Speaker, this is a House of
records and everything we say here
must reflect the records available to
this House. In the year 2012, the total
cocoa production in this country was
835,000 metric tonnes that was when
former President John Mahama took
office as the President of our nation.
At the end of the year 2016, cocoa
production was 969,500 metric tonnes
indicating that over the four year pe-
riod, cocoa production in Ghana in-
creased by 134,500 metric tonnes and
this has never happened in the history
of cocoa in this country.
In the year 2017, a new govern-
ment took office - Nana Akufo Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and
at that time cocoa production was
969,500. Today, they are talking
about 1,045,500 indicating that over
the four year period, cocoa production
Statements

has increased by 76,000 and we are

being invited to celebrate 76,000

against 134,500 over the same period

of time.

Mr Speaker, how would you de-

scribe this as “unprecedented”? In any case, before the production of cocoa,

we invest and the cost of producing at

a certain quantity of cocoa is also very

important and this House must also

consider that.

The 2019 Auditor-General's Re- port states that in the year 2017 when

the NPP took office and started man-

aging the COCOBOD, COCOBOD

incurred a loss of GH¢162.8 million.

In the year 2018, it is reported in the

2020 Auditor-General's Report that they incurred a loss of GH¢84.8 mil-

lion after the Ministry of Finance had

given them a bailout of GH¢176 mil-

lion.

Mr Speaker, the year 2019 was

worse as COCOBOD incurred a loss

of GH¢320.6 million; this has never

happened in the history of cocoa in

this country. COCOBOD has never

been mismanaged like this before. In

fact, as we speak, COCOBOD is

highly in debt as they owe over

GH¢40 billion and this has never hap-

pened in this country --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:40 p.m.
Hon Eric Opoku, hold on.
Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin 12:40 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order
to the effect that the Hon Member on
his feet is in breach of Standing Order
72. The terms of this Standing Order
is specific that our comments should
be limited to the scope of the State-
ment.
If Hon Eric Opoku, whom I came
to meet in this House knows about the
rules and if he has issues about debt by
a company, he should file a Question
and get the appropriate answer. He
should not smuggle his way through
when he does not have the full facts.
The issue is that he is not to generate
debate; he should not use his own
comments to start his own Statements.
Mr Speaker, he should please
limit himself to the terms of the State-
ments which were to the effect that
there has been ‘unprecedented' cocoa production -- [Interruption]. Are they challenging that? These are facts and
the Hon Member who made the State-
ment said so and can Hon Eric Opoku
tell us that he has --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:40 p.m.
Hon Deputy Majority Leader --
Mr Afenyo-Markin 12:50 p.m.
Mr
Speaker; I am concluding on my point
of order, that is, throughout the sub-
mission of Hon Eric Opoku, he has not
told us that the figure quoted by the
Statements

Hon Member who made the Statement

is not correct. The Hon Member who

made the Statement is saying that as

the records stands now, this is the

highest ever in the history of this

country in terms of cocoa production.

That is what Hon Eric Opoku

should commend COCOBOD on and

not to use that to start a new debate

and he knows better.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:50 p.m.
Hon Members, let us have order in the
House. As I said early on, I knew we
would come to this point and that is
why I cautioned that we should not go
out of our way --
Hon Eric Opoku, please con-
clude.
Mr E. Opoku 12:50 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the
Hon Member who made the Statement
raised issues concerning cocoa pro-
duction and this goes with investment.
Mr Speaker, this is a House of records
so in contributing, we have to interro-
gate the issues. Also, he raised several
points that I must speak to as part of
my contribution. Mr Speaker, so I
would plead with you to give us ample
time to exhaust all the issues that have
been raised because it is very im-
portant, considering the critical role
cocoa plays in the economy of our
country.
Mr Speaker, they are churning
out --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:50 p.m.
Hon Member, Standing Order 72
mandates us to comment and you do
not have to ask me to give you enough
time to comment. Just make a com-
ment for us to move on.
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 12:50 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, we are developing a nation
and in nation building, the input from
the Minority Side is very important.
Mr Speaker, Hon Eric Opoku is the
Minority spokesperson for the Food
and Agriculture Sector.
Mr Speaker, as the Hon Deputy
Majority Leader rightly put it, Hon
Eric Opoku is a senior Hon Colleague
in this House because I and the Hon
Deputy Majority Leader came to meet
him in this House. We need the facts
and this is the best way to learn and
when I came to this House, I was told
that there came a time when a former
Hon Minority Leader of this House,
Hon J. H. Mensah, spoke for three
hours on the floor of this House. Mr
Speaker, it is in this regard that when
the Hon Majority Leader, Hon Osei
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, and others who
were with Hon J. H. Mensah in this
House are contributing, we realised
their articulation from the veteran Hon
J. H. Mensah.
Mr Speaker, on this note, I think
that the new Hon Members are also
learning and others like myself are
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also learning, so if we can give time to

Hon Eric Opoku, he will enrich his

contribution. Also, we are speaking to

the public and through this, they

would have some respect for Parlia-

mentarians that we are authorities in

and understand our areas. So, we

should not just say he should make

brief comments and then it will be-

come business as usual. I think that

Hon First Deputy Speaker was doing

well in that regard and you also should

do very well.

So, on this note, I beg that you al-

low him to proceed because he is rais-

ing matters of fact and I think that he

would also take a cue from your guid-

ance that he must not generate debate.

We are all taking notes on statistics

like one million metric tonnes,

134,000 metric tonnes, and 76,000

metric tonnes and so on. Mr Speaker,

I am writing these down so if you trun-

cate his contribution, then I would

also be cut-off. Mr Speaker, so please
Mr Afenyo-Markin 12:50 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, those who were in charge of
the rules knew what they wanted Par-
liament to do when they expressly
provided for comments to be made on
Statements. It is the right of Hon Eric
Opoku to make a Statement on issues
about the cocoa sector and nobody can
take this right away from him. How-
ever, on this occasion, he is only to
comment on the Statement made. He
cannot use this to generate his own
substantive Statement on the Floor be-
cause it is not right and he should
know this.
Mr Speaker, Hon Ahmed Ibra-
him, a respected Pentecost elder, must
not find a way of misleading this
House by saying that because the Mi-
nority has a right to be heard, same
would be construed to mean that a
Statement read, which would require
comment, must necessarily lead to a
new Statement being made. Mr
Speaker, what is stopping the Hon
Member from also submitting a new
Statement to be read on the floor of the
House? The Hon Member is the Hon
Ranking Member of the Committee
on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Af-
fairs so if he has serious disagree-
ments and thinks that certain things
are not accurate or is worried about a
matter in the cocoa sector, then he
should file an Urgent Question. On
this occasion, with the greatest re-
spect, I dare contend that the Hon
Member can only make a brief com-
ment and that is what Standing Order
72 says. Mr Speaker, he knows better
so do not oblige him.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:50 p.m.
Hon Eric Opoku, please proceed but I
would now allot time to the contribu-
Statements

tions by Hon Members. Hon Mem-

bers, who would want to contribute to

the Statement would be given 10

minutes to do so.
Mr Eric Opoku 1 p.m.
Mr Speaker,
thank you very much for the oppor-
tunity to continue but it is important
for this House to note that when State-
ments are made, they must contain
facts and inaccurate statements must
be corrected during our contributions
and this is what must be done.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Member
who made the Statement mentioned
the Pensions Scheme and showered
praises on COCOBOD and for that
matter, this Government and the rec-
ords are available to this House. Mr
Speaker, the Ghana Cocoa Board Act
1984 which was promulgated by the
PNDC, provided, under Section 26(1),
the establishment of the Pension
Scheme, not only for the cocoa farm-
ers but also for the coffee and shea nut
farmers. Since the promulgation of
this law, Governments have come and
left but none of them made an attempt
to save a pesewa for the commence-
ment of the Pension Scheme until for-
mer President Mahama assumed Of-
fice.
Mr Speaker, the 2020 Auditor-
General's report shows that under for- mer President Mahama from 2013 to
2016, it accumulated a whopping
GH₵28.9 million for the commence- ment of the
Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme. Mr
Speaker, I want to put on record today
that since the NPP assumed Office, in
the last four years, they have not con-
tributed a pesewa to the Scheme yet
they want to take credit for it. How
can they do this?
Mr Speaker, even the Auditor-
General queried them on why for five
years they have not invested the
GH₵28.9 million money they inher- ited from us which was set aside for
the Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme.
Mr Speaker, when you read the re-
sponse that they provided, you would
weep for this nation. Today, they sit
here and make a courageous State-
ment and take credit for something
that they have not contributed a pe-
sewa to. How can they do this and say
that we should not comment?

Mr Speaker, you would recall

that when the NPP assumed Office in

2017, they told the whole nation that

the NDC, through COCOBOD had

awarded cocoa roads amounting to

GH₵5.1 billion and that COCOBOD did not have the capacity to pay. It was

for this reason that they set up a com-

mittee to audit the cocoa roads, but it

would shock you to note that prior to

the 2020 Elections, the NPP Govern-

ment under President Nana Akufo-

Addo awarded cocoa roads amounting

Statements

to GHȻ13.6 billion. Now, they cannot even have money to pay, and should

we praise them for this mismanage-

ment and gross incompetence?
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1 p.m.
Be winding up.
Mr E. Opoku 1 p.m.
So Mr Speaker,
what we are saying is that even the to-
tal output we are talking about, the
1,045,000 metric tonnes is never true.
We challenge them to produce the
specific details. We collected data
from all the buying agencies, and
Ghana did not even hit 1 million met-
ric tonnes. They are lying to us.
Mr Speaker, you are presiding
over this. Just put up a committee to
probe into the total cocoa production
and we would expose them. The fact
is that the whole cocoa sector has been
mismanaged. It is on the verge of col-
lapse, and as we speak, they are even
contemplating on issuing long-term
bonds as they have been doing, push-
ing their debts to be paid by unborn
children.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1 p.m.
Hon Member, you have exhausted
your time.
Mr E. Opoku 1 p.m.
Mr Speaker, to
conclude, the Hon Member who made
the Statement has done a great disser-
vice to this House by misleading us
and churning out issues that are totally
false, absolutely untruth just to mis-
lead this House and to whitewash their
non-performance as though they are
doing something.
Mr Speaker, on this note, I crave
your indulgence to refer the Hon
Member who made this Statement to
the Privileges Committee for lying to
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1 p.m.
Let me invite Hon Osei Frimpong?
Mr John Frimpong Osei (NPP
-- Abirem): Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to com-
ment on the Statement ably made my
colleague, Hon Dr Opoku.
Mr Speaker, before I proceed
with my comment, I would like to
draw the attention of the House to the
purported falsehood that the National
Democratic Congress (NDC) Govern-
ment if it had won the 2020 Elections
was going to do to Ghana. In their
2020 Elections Manifesto, the NDC
could tell Ghanaians that should
power be given them, they were going
to use taxpayers' money to control fall army warm which does not affected
cocoa farms or cocoa farmers. The
NDC Government was going to cause
financial loss to the State. I have a
copy of the Manifesto, I can quote.

Statements
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1 p.m.
Yes, Hon Leader?
Mr A. Ibrahim 1 p.m.
On a point of
order.
Mr Speaker, is Hon John Osei
Frimpong telling us in this House that
fall army worm attacked cocoa in the
country? Is that what he is saying? If
that is what he is saying, I would want
him to confirm. If he did not say so, he
must let this House hear. This is the
very first time that I am hearing that
the fall army worm that attacked
maize in the country also attacked co-
coa farms. He should come out clear.
This is a House of records.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1 p.m.
Hon Member, restrict yourself to the
Statement.
Mr J. F. Osei 1 p.m.
Mr Speaker, in
the 2020 Manifesto by the NDC, un-
der paragraph 6.11.2.13 titled “Pro- gramme to effectively tackle fall army
worm” reads:
“The NDC Government will re- sume a programme to effectively
tackle the fall army worm inva-
sion of cocoa farms”
Mr Speaker, I have it here. So if
Hon Ahmed Ibrahim, the Leader, is
telling us that I am rather telling
churning out falsehood, I want him to
produce the total document of their
Manifesto for us to refer and quote
again for us.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1 p.m.
Please, this is just a comment on the
Statement that has been made on the
Floor.
Yes, Hon Sampson Ahi, what is
it?
Mr Sampson Ahi 1 p.m.
Mr Speaker,
I believe you have given enough di-
rectives to Hon Members. I would
want to challenge the Hon Chairman
for the Committee on Food, Agricul-
ture and Cocoa Affairs to lay the doc-
ument he is referring to for our verifi-
cation.
Mr Speaker, that document has
nothing to do with the Statement on
the Floor. The NPP's Manifesto is not on the Floor for comments at the mo-
ment. We are not discussing anything
about NPP's Manifesto or NDC's Manifesto. For the Hon Member to
bring in NDC's Manifesto, he is de- scending into the realms of irrele-
vance. For that matter, he should con-
fine himself to the Statement of the
Floor.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1 p.m.
Hon Member, I understand your
Leader has selected you to speak to
the Statement. Why do you not hold
on? You would get your turn. Let us
restrict ourselves to the Statement. We
Statements

are making the Statement irrelevant

even though it is supposed to be a very

relevant document we are supposed to

comment on. I do not think the way

we are trying to play politics about it

is the best. Let us restrict ourselves to

the Statement. It is a very important

Statement we need to work on.

Hon Member, please continue.
Mr J. F. Osei 1:10 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I was
glad when my colleague, the Hon
Ranking Member, Eric Opoku, said
investment goes with production, and
that COCOBOD has been given so
much and have done little.
Mr Speaker, this is not true. If
you go through the records of produc-
tion, when the NDC Government took
over the Administration, the
2008/2009 production year yielded
710,639 metric tonnes. In the follow-
ing year, it decreased to 632,037 met-
ric tonnes.
Mr Speaker, it was only in
2010/2011 that we hit the 1 million
metric tonnes. From then it started de-
creasing again. [Interruption.] The 1
million metric tonnes is nowhere near
what turned out this year, which is
1,045,500 million.
Mr Speaker, recently, we had a
tour to about four regions in Ghana
that produce cocoa. What the Com-
mittee saw on the ground is something
we have to commend COCOBOD for.
They have done extremely well, and if
this year they have been able to pro-
duce over 1 million metric tonnes of
cocoa, in the subsequent years, I know
that COCOBOD would do more than
what they have done in the production
of cocoa. We visited Hunikrom in the
Western North Region; Aboagyekrom
and some other communities over
there.
Mr Speaker, all the interventions
are going on there very well. The mass
spraying is still ongoing; distribution
of fertilizers ongoing; pruning and
slashing of cocoa trees ongoing, habi-
tation of moribund farms, especially
in Aboagyekrom was a sight to see for
yourself.

Mr Speaker, the cocoa trees that

were cut off or the farms that were re-

habilitated have started yielding fruits

over two years and the livelihood of

the cocoa farmers over there have

been improved by the supply of plan-

tain suckers. So they are not losing

much and Government, through CO-

COBOD is paying money to these

farmers so that it can sustain them till

when the cocoa comes to full fruition.

Mr Speaker, at Punikrom, a co-

coa farmer who farms on 2.5 acres of

Statements

land and was producing 9 bags per an-

num has been able to produce 125

bags from the same acreage of farm.

These are the indications that COCO-

BOD would do well in subsequent

years. [Interruption] -- They have done well and they would continue to

do well. COCOBOD has done very

well for the nation and they must be

commended.

Mr Speaker, I must take this op-

portunity to commend the Hon Mem-

ber who made the Statement by also

telling my Hon Colleague, Mr Eric

Opoku on the other Side that they

should take their figures carefully.

This is because some of the figures

they churned out were not wholly true.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:10 p.m.
Hon Member for Bodi?
Mr Sampson Ahi (NDC -- Bodi) 1:10 p.m.
Thank you very much, Mr
Speaker, for the opportunity to con-
tribute to the Statement on the Floor.
Mr Speaker, we are talking about
unprecedented achievements of cocoa
production in Ghana. The Chairman
who just spoke started comparing
from 2000/2001 and 2008 and so on.
We are talking about the four year pe-
riod in which former President Ma-
hama took cocoa from 2013 to 2017
and from 2017 to 2021 when Nana
Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo also took
over cocoa production in this country.
Mr Speaker, we are saying that in
2012, before former President Ma-
hama became President of this coun-
try, cocoa production was 855,000
metric tonnes. By the time we left of-
fice in 2017, cocoa production had in-
creased from 855,000 to 967,500. So
if we subtract 855,000 from 967,500,
it means that within four years of for-
mer President Mahama's tenure, co- coa production increased by 134,500
metric tonnes. Nana Akufo-Addo met
cocoa production at 967,500. Let us
tell the Hon Member who made the
Statement that by the end of last year's cocoa season, cocoa production was
1,045,500, which means that if they
met it at 967,500, within four years,
they only added 76,000 metric tonnes.
If they want us to clap for them for
adding 79,000, then what would they
do to the people who added 134,500?

Mr Speaker, I was shocked and

surprised that the Hon Member who

made the Statement was silent on co-

coa roads in this country. This is be-

cause cocoa roads contribute to cocoa

production in this country.

Mr Speaker, I want to put on rec-

ord that the activities that have been

undertaken by the NPP Government

Statements

has resulted in the destruction of co-

coa farms in this country. They should

go to the Western North Region and

see how cocoa activities are going on.

Cocoa farmers are crying everywhere.

Their children are crying. So the Hon

Member who made the Statement

should not come and lie to us that for

the first time, they have achieved so

much, he should come again.

Mr Speaker, I want to support the

call by the Ranking Member of the

Committee on Food, Agriculture and

Cocoa Affairs that he should refer him

to the Privileges Committee for fur-

ther probing for lying to us so that the

truth would not come out.

Mr Speaker, before NDC left of-

fice, we were distributing free fertilis-

ers to cocoa farmers. In fact, we have

embossed “not for sale” on the ferti- liser sacks. NPP Administration as-

sumed Office and cancelled the “not” and it became “for sale” and they were selling the fertilisers to cocoa farmers.

But these were fertilisers that we used

moneys from cocoa farmers to buy.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo 1:10 p.m.
None

ers to cocoa farmers. As we speak,

even cocoa farmers who have money

and want to buy fertilisers do not get

them to buy. So, it is unfortunate. He

was talking about pollination. He

should move to the cocoa farms and

find out what cocoa pollination has

done to cocoa trees. They have de-

stroyed all the cocoa trees, particu-

larly in the Western North Region --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:10 p.m.
Hon Member, start winding up.
Mr Ahi 1:10 p.m.
Mr Speaker, these are
serious matters that we should take se-
riously when we are talking about co-
coa production in this country. He
should go there and find out. I know
that maybe, it has been a long since
they moved through cocoa-growing
areas and not experiencing or feeling
what the cocoa farmers are going
through --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:10 p.m.
Hon Member, hold on. Let me invite
the Hon Minister for Local Govern-
ment, Decentralisation and Rural De-
velopment.
Mr Dan Botwe 1:10 p.m.
Mr Speaker,
this is a House of records and we do
not make such statements that all co-
coa trees in the Western North Region
have been destroyed.
Mr Speaker, I have a cocoa farm
in Kabiesie in Akontombra. The trees
have not been destroyed so he cannot
make such statements to be captured
in our records.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Statements
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:10 p.m.
Hon Ahi, the statement was too
sweeping so just restrict yourself. You
cannot just say that all cocoa farms --
Mr Ahi 1:10 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I know that
Hon Dan Botwe was born in a cocoa-
growing area somewhere in Sankore
but it has been a long time since he
visited his place of birth and to claim
that he has a cocoa farm in Kabiesie - since when did he go to Kabiesie?
[Laughter] -- If he wants to know the truth of what I am talking about, after
today, he should let us move to the co-
coa growing areas. He would see
things for himself and when he comes
back, he would not stand on a point of
order to say that --
Mr Ahi 1:10 p.m.
Mr Speaker, to con-
clude, when the NDC Administration
was in power, we paid bonuses to co-
coa farmers. The Hon Member who
made the Statement and Hon Col-
leagues from the Majority should tell
us -- from 2017 to date, how much cocoa bonuses have they paid to cocoa
farmers? None. Zero. This laudable
policy has been cancelled by NPP
Government. Today, they are calling
on all Ghanaians to clap for them for
collapsing cocoa farms in this coun-
try.
Mr Speaker --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:20 p.m.
Hon Member, your time is up.
Mr Ahi 1:20 p.m.
Mr Speaker, to con-
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:20 p.m.
Hon Member, you have already con-
cluded.
Mr Ahi 1:20 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I would
want to end by echoing what Hon Eric
Opoku said --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:20 p.m.
Hon Member, do not go there.
Mr Ahi 1:20 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the Hon
Member who made the Statement
should be invited to the Privileges
Committee to answer certain ques-
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:20 p.m.
Hon Member, retract that statement
because it as if we are joking. Do not
add that.
Yes, Hon Kwaku Kwarteng?
Mr Kwaku Agyeman Kwart-
eng (NPP -- Obuasi West): Mr Speaker, I thank you for the oppor-
tunity to be invited to speak to this im-
portant Statement. It is indeed an im-
portant Statement and I commend
Hon Yaw Opoku for putting into our
Statements

discussion this morning, the workings

and the achievements of Ghana CO-

COBOD.

Mr Speaker, the ongoing initia-

tive by Ghana and La Cote d'Ivoire to ensure that the country has good value

for the cocoa we export are all very

important initiatives by the institution.

Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleagues

have spoken extensively about the

achievements of COCOBOD, and I

have also heard from my Hon Col-

leagues on the other Side speak about

some of the challenges of COCO-

BOD. There is just one matter I would

like to introduce to the discussion. It is

on cocoa roads.

Mr Speaker, Hon Eric Opoku

said that cocoa road construction un-

der the previous Administration was

criticised, but unfortunately, it is still

ongoing. He is right. The construction

of cocoa roads as an expenditure on

COCOBOD is a policy that this coun-

try would have to revisit. What is the

point in establishing an institution to

deliver on a mandate and then we end

up assigning to that institution, a man-

date that they have no expertise over?

This contributes to the financial diffi-

culties of COCOBOD. I hope that as

Members of Parliament, we would ad-

vert our minds to these matters.

As I have indicated before, the

political leadership of this country,

both past and present, must make a

clear decision on what we want CO-

COBOD to do, otherwise, we risk de-

stroying not just COCOBOD, but ulti-

mately, the industry that it leads. I

would like to add to the suggestion

made by Hon Eric Opoku that even

some benefits that were indicated to

be given to our farmers have not ma-

terialised. The reality is this, one of

the challenges of COCOBOD, which

in my view is threatening the industry

is the political unwillingness to review

incentives they give to producers of

cocoa even when the returns we get as

a country is inadequate. When I hear

him, I get the feeling that - the cocoa farmers have votes, so whatever it is,

we should find money from some-

where and make them happy.

Mr Speaker, I believe that moti-

vation for cocoa farmers is very im-

portant and we see in this Statement

efforts, not just by this Administra-

tion, but also by previous administra-

tions to help the cocoa farmer. What

we have not critically analysed is

where we are getting the resources

from in order to provide the incentives

that Hon Eric Opoku said are inade-

quate.

Mr Speaker, unless we sit down

and review the workings of COCO-

BOD again and look at the finances of

Statements

COCOBOD, we will continue to do

politics with COCOBOD and in the

end, not just destroy COCOBOD, but

also the cocoa industry.

Mr Speaker, thank you.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:20 p.m.
Hon Member, thank you very much.
Yes, the last person from the Mi-
nority Side.
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 1:20 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, cocoa used to be under the
Ministry of Finance, until it was taken
to the Ministry of Food and Agricul-
ture. So, the former Deputy Minister
for Finance will speak on Leadership.
Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson
(NDC -- Ajumako/Enyan/Essiam): Mr Speaker, thank you. Any State-
ment on the sustainability of Ghana's cocoa is something that all of us must
take serious.
Mr Speaker, for over 60 years, a
single commodity that has sustained
Ghana's economy is cocoa. So, it is important for us to debate issues
which relate to cocoa dispassionately.
There has been a number of commen-
taries today as to who should be hon-
oured in terms of the achievements of
the sector.
What is more striking to me to-
day is the fact that we are debating co-
coa roads. This was criticised for a
simple reason that Ghana Cocoa
Board had awarded so many cocoa
roads, and we were told that it was not
sustainable. At the time, the Govern-
ment of Ghana had awarded GH¢5.1
billion worth of cocoa roads on con-
tracts, the very administration that
criticised it, and subjected it to audit.
They came back to Office and then
awarded cocoa roads to the tune of
GH¢13 billion. We should be worried.
Mr Speaker, in the statement of
the Chairman of the Finance Commit-
tee, he said --
Mr Afenyo-Markin on point of
order.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Member
who made the Statement did not refer
to cocoa roads. The Hon Member is
commenting on the Statement, so he
should not bring a new debate. He was
not here when the Hon Member pre-
sented his Statement, and he is saying
the Hon Member said cocoa road. The
Hon Member who made the Statement
never talked about cocoa roads. He
talked about the unprecedented pro-
duction levels. So, he should focus on
that one and comment on the effort
made in the industry.
Statements
Dr Forson 1:20 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I am sur-
prised you did not rule the Hon Dep-
uty Majority Leader out of order.
When the debate was on going he
walked out. He was not here when the
Chairman of the Finance Committee
spoke. I saw him seated at the back. I
expected him to sit as a Leader of the
House. Next time, he should sit down
and listen to the debate. I am respond-
ing to the statement made by the
Chairman of the Finance Committee.
Mr Speaker, you know that the Chair-
man of the Finance Committee raised
this issue that I am talking about. So,
the Hon Deputy Majority Leader can-
not rule me out of order. His style will
not work on me, so he should not do
that again next time.
Mr Speaker, I would like to con-
tinue. My argument is simple. In the
same vein, we are aware that the Min-
istry of Health is responsible for the
award of contracts for the construction
of hospitals, but today, what do we
see? The Office of the President is
awarding contracts -- [Hear! Hear!] -- For the hospital projects. So, Chairman of the Finance Committee,
next time, advice the President.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:20 p.m.
Hon Member, this Statement has
nothing to do with hospitals, so do not
bring it into the debate. Kindly retract
that, and let us finish with contribu-
tions on COCOBOD. There are no is-
sues on hospitals.
Mr Forson 1:30 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I am
only telling him that next time when I
am on the Floor debating he should
not try to derail me because a lot more
would come out.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
Hon Member, please retract that state-
ment for me.
Mr Forson 1:30 p.m.
Mr Speaker, to con-
tinue on the very statement that I --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
Hon Member, I respect you. Retract
that statement.
Mr Forson 1:30 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I am
winding up.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
No, I would want you to retract your
statement first.
Mr Forson 1:30 p.m.
Mr Speaker, which
one should I retract, please?
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
Do not bring hospital issue, I just want
you to --
Statements
Mr Forson 1:30 p.m.
Mr Speaker, sorry
about that. You know me. I would
never say anything contrary to the
rules. So, with all respect, it is im-
portant for us to understand that --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
Hon Ato Forson, respectfully, just do
away with that particular statement.
Mr Forson 1:30 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I do
away with that part.
Mr Speaker, for the records, it is
important for us to note that the Hon
Chairman advises that we should visit
the issues of COCOBOD seriously,
and I support that. That is why I
started my statement by saying that
anything that has to do with the sus-
tainability of Ghana's cocoa is some- thing that should bother all of us, and
we should debate it dispassionately.
This is because cocoa has been one
single commodity that has sustained
this country in the last 60 years. We
cannot toy with issues that have to do
with cocoa at all.
Mr Speaker, as the one presiding
over the proceedings today, I would
like to encourage you to instruct or or-
der a Committee that would look into
the sustainability of Ghana's cocoa. There have been so many issues that
relate to the sustainability of Ghana's cocoa. Today, we all know that CO-
COBOD is in debt. It is a ‘known se- cret', and everybody knows about it.
Therefore, whatever we collectively
have to do to ensure that the almighty
Ghana COCOBOD stands on its feet
to be able to address the challenges
and employ the teeming population of
our country is something that we
would all have to welcome. And I
would want to urge you to set up a
Committee that would be able to look
at the sustainability issues of the
Ghana COCOBOD because it is in the
interest of the country.
Mr Speaker, I thank you.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
Yes, Hon Deputy Minister for Food
and Agriculture?
Deputy Minister for Food and
Agriculture (Mr Yaw Frimpong
Addo)[MP]: Mr Speaker, I thank you
for the opportunity to comment on the
Statement ably made by the Hon
Member of Parliament for Offinso
South, who I can say without hesita
tion is an institutional memory of co-
coa in this country. He has worked at
COCOBOD all his life. Therefore,
when such a person writes a Statement
on cocoa, it is something that carries
so much weight. From the beginning
of the debate up to this time, I have
been sad. Although I am not the Me-
thuselah of this House, I have been in
this House long enough; for nine years
now, and this is the first time that I am
witnessing anything like this, where a
Statements

Statement is subjected to so much de-

bate, bringing about a whole lot of

controversial issues. Mr Speaker, it

was a harmless Statement that my Hon

Colleague made about cocoa produc-

tion in this country. Nobody can de-

bate that one because the figures are

clear here that in the years 2010 and

2011, Ghana produced --
rose
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
Hon Member, hold on.
Hon Leaders, I cannot ignore you
when you get up, but you should, at
least, allow the comments of Hon
Members to flow.
Anyway, Hon Deputy Minority
Whip, let me hear you.
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 1:30 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, with respect, the Hon Deputy
Minister for Food and Agriculture is
my good friend. Mr Speaker, we are to
assist you to maintain order in this
House, but this is a House of records.
I would not want it to go in the records
that you are the only Hon Speaker
within the last nine years to have ad-
mitted a Statement that has been in-
tensely debated as this one.
Mr Speaker, it is factually not
correct, and I would want that aspect
of his statement to be expunged from
the records. We have debated serious
and very provocative Statements that
invoked debates in this House, includ-
ing even security Statements. This is
just a harmless one, and there are in-
puts which were given by Hon Mem-
bers of Parliament (MPs) who had au-
thority in that field; the Hon Chairman
and Hon Ranking Member of the Fi-
nance Committee, and the Hon Chair-
man and Hon Ranking Member of the
Committee on Food, Agriculture and
Cocoa Affairs. They gave him their
inputs. These are facts, and the beauty
of it is that they ended by saying that
it should be referred to a Committee to
assist the Minister in a good direction.
So, if he still disagrees and is indicting
you for admitting a Statement, which
is so provocative, which debate has
aroused controversial issues, I disa-
gree. Mr Speaker, you have done very
well by coming under Standing Order
72 to admit this Statement. So, my
good friend should expunge that as-
pect because the Hon Speaker has
done very well, and he should be
given credit for it.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
So, for the mere fact that he said that
he has been here for nine years and
this is the only Statement that is gen-
erating so much debate is the problem.
Hon Member, please continue.
Statements
Mr Addo 1:30 p.m.
Mr Speaker, far from
that. I was very emphatic on the fact
that I have not witnessed any State-
ment that has been debated to this ex-
tent. I was very specific, I did not gen-
eralise it. I said “I have not wit- nessed”. So, I do not see how my Hon Colleague would want to bring you
into this debate. In spite of all your ad-
monishing, people went overboard
and seriously speaking, it is on record
that everybody went overboard. This
is because the issue is about produc-
tion and it is simple. What the State-
ment is purported to bring out is that
in the years 2010 and 2011, Ghana
produced 1,024,526 metric tonnes of
cocoa, and at that time it was unprec-
edented and everybody spoke about it.
So, what is this thing about 1,045,500,
which is more than the previous one?
It also falls into the same category of
an issue which is unprecedentedly
over debated. Should this one gener-
ate a debate? I thought that all of us
were going to encourage our hard
working farmers to do more in spite of
all the challenges of COCOBOD.
Mr Speaker, the hardworking
farmers of this country, in spite of the
fact that about 200,000 hectares of co-
coa trees in the Western-North Region
have been cut down for replanting,
have been able to produce this quan-
tum of cocoa. So, we should encour-
age our farmers and not do politics
with cocoa. This is because as the Hon
Ranking Member for Finance said,
cocoa has sustained this country for
the last 60 years and beyond; so, we
should not do politics with cocoa. All
what we would want to do here is to
know what we should do to encourage
our cocoa farmers to either sustain this
level of production or even go beyond
it.
There are factors that the Hon
Member who made the Statement out-
lined in the Statement, including the
Cocoa Pensions Scheme and all those
things. Whether it was started in the
previous administration or not, the
fact remains that this thing is starting
this year, and that is enough encour-
agement for these cocoa farmers to
continue to work hard to bring about
cocoa production to a certain level that
would give Ghana the necessary dol-
lars that we need to sustain this econ-
omy. This is because at a go, cocoa
brings into this country an amount of
US$1.5 billion. Therefore, this House
should not undermine the efforts that
cocoa farmers are putting in by bring-
ing up these issues that would not en-
courage them. We should rather en-
courage them.
Mr Speaker, if we say that we are
going to abide by the rules of the game
in this House, then before I resume my
seat, I would want to admonish our
Hon Friends on the other Side that co-
coa is so special to this country; so, we
Statements

should not do politics with it. When-

ever cocoa issues come to this House,

all of us must speak with one voice

and come to a consensus. The issues

are there, so, if there are challenges,

then everybody is free to come out

with them, but not in the manner that

it was done this afternoon.

Mr Speaker, I thank you.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:40 p.m.
Hon Members, I thank you for the in-
terest you have taken in this particular
Statement. Hon Colleagues asked me
to make a referral to a Committee. I
am unable to do that simply because
in two weeks, we would have the
presentation of the Budget Statement.
Obviously, a Budget Statement would
capture the cocoa sector, and the fig-
ures will come up to show whether the
Hon Member who made the Statement
or Hon Eric Opoku said the truth. I
will not make any referral to any
Committee. Let us hold on till two
weeks' time when we get the Budget Statement to, at least, ascertain the sit-
uation for ourselves.
We will take the second State-
ment from Hon Kwabena Mintah
Akandoh on the Excessive Political
Scheming Surrounding the Approval
of the District Chief Executive for
Sefwi Juaboso District.
Hon Member, you may take the
Floor.
Excessive Political Scheming
for the Approval of DCE for Sefwi
Juaboso District
Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh
(NDC -- Juaboso): Mr Speaker, I am most grateful for the opportunity to
make this Statement on excessive po-
litical scheming surrounding the Ap-
proval of the President's nominee for District Chief Executive of Sefwi
Juaboso District.
This Statement provides a brief
overview of the processes that led to
the approval of the President's nomi- nee for the position of District Chief
Executive for the Sefwi Juaboso Dis-
trict. It outlines an elaborate, and om-
inous scheme which, if left un-
checked, has the propensity to derail
our democratic system from its cur-
rent peaceful trajectory. It is a scheme
that usurps the mandate of the people
and substitutes in its place the paro-
chial interests of some political actors.
Unfortunately, the sinister forces be-
hind these schemes failed to realise
that elections form the core of our
democratic practice and thus safe-
guard our national peace and cohe-
sion.
Mr Speaker, on 19th September,
2021, the President nominated new
Metropolitan, Municipal and District
Statements

Chief Executive Officers to assist in

running 260 Districts (minus Santro-

kofi Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe). This

included Mr Godfred Kwabena Adjei

Asante the President's nominee for Sefwi Juaboso District. Sequel to this,

an Assembly meeting, properly con-

stituted and convened by the Presiding

Member as prescribed by article

244(3) of the 1992 Constitution and

subsection 5 of section 17(5) of the

Local Government Act, was duly held

on 6th October, 2021 with the District

Electoral Commission Officer in at-

tendance to conduct the business of

voting on the President's nominee.

Unfortunately, the nominee at

the said meeting polled 11 Yes votes

out of a total of 23 votes casted thus

failing to cross the constitutional hur-

dle of, at least, two-thirds of the votes

of members present and voting as re-

quired by both the 1992 Constitution

and the Local Government Act (Act

936) of 2016. In short, the nomination

failed, pending a re-nomination by the

President; with reasons, the candidate

was no longer to be considered as one

in contention for the position of Dis-

trict Chief Executive (DCE).

There was, however, some news

on the grapevine to the effect that the

President had re-nominated the same

candidate. In response, the Presiding

Member, working proactively, was

able to intercept the whereabouts of an

official copy of the President's letter

of the re-nomination of the nominee

for the position of DCE. In addition to

that letter, there was a letter revoking

the appointment of an appointee of the

President and replacing same with an-

other as directed by the President.

However, before the Presiding

Member could convene and preside

over a meeting of the Assembly mem-

bers as mandated in both the 1992

Constitution and the Local Govern-

ment Act (Act 936), a secret meeting

consisting of 12 members of the As-

sembly and not in consonance with the

letter and spirit of both article

244(3)(a) of the 1992 Constitution and

section 17(5) of the Local Govern-

ment Act (Act 936), was convened at

the official residence of the DCE.

At that secret meeting and per re-

ports gathered, the Deputy Regional

Electoral Officer was said to have

been present and to have conducted

the voting on the President's nomina- tion with the 12 exclusively invited

Assembly members present. Although

the actual tally for that vote was not

communicated, community members

were informed that the President's nominee had crossed the constitu-

tional threshold and is now the sub-

stantive DCE for the area.

Mr Speaker, unfortunately, this is

neither hypothetical nor fictional, but

rather a truthful account of the series

of events that accounted to the ap-

proval of the now acclaimed DCE for

Statements

the Sefwi Juaboso District. The series

of events delineates a well-crafted

scheme popularly referred to in local

parlance as “elimination by rough tac- tics” to guarantee approvals for exec- utive mandates which may be unfa-

vourable to the elected representatives

of the people or to the generality of

citizens in the district.

Mr Speaker, at the core of our

democratic practice is elections. It is

an opportunity for opposing elements

to register their displeasure with how

and by whom they are being governed

and any attempt to silence, muzzle, or

rid citizens and the elected represent-

atives of their rights to oppose deci-

sions made on their behalf have the

potential to open the doors for anar-

chy, and finally lead to open and dis-

astrous revolt. This must by all means,

be prevented.

Unfortunately, it is not a unique

occurrence, but it seemed to have been

flawlessly replicated in several dis-

tricts across the country. The plethora

of locations where such horrible ex-

amples occurred include Suaman,

Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai and

Sekyere Kumawu.

Mr Speaker, although MPs are

non-voting members of District As-

semblies, they are ex-officio members

who must be present at meetings of

the Assembly. The Hon Member of

Parliament for Kumawu, however,

had the unfortunate ordeal of being

barricaded out of the Assembly hall

where the meeting to conduct elec-

tions for the President's nominee for the Kumawu District was ongoing.

The preponderance of such prec-

edents and developments as outlined

are fast eroding public confidence in

the democratic process, and frantic ef-

forts are needed to reinstate the fast-

waning confidence in the outcome of

our democratic process. If efforts are

not made to redirect Ghana's demo- cratic vessel back to the path of

recttude, we may end up like the un-

fortunate stories of military revolts or

coup d'états and social unrest across the continent with their attendant soci-

oeconomic stagnation and retrogres-

sion.

As legislators or Hon MPs, we

have, through the democratic process,

emerged as voices for the countless

thousands. For this reason, we must

raise our voices against such acts that

have the likelihood of getting us back

to the dark ages. For this reason, I

would like to call on Parliament as a

House to constitute a probe into areas

where these schemes are reported to

have taken place, and to propose

measures to rectify the situation.

This is not a cause to be left at the

doorstep of the Executive or Presi-

dency. This is not an issue that should

only be dealt with by the ruling New

Patriotic Party (NPP). This is not NPP

Statements

Ghana or Akufo-Addo's Ghana; this is our country, and we must cure this

cancer before it kills us all.

May God protect and preserve

our democracy. I am most grateful for

the opportunity.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:50 p.m.
Very well. I will admit two contribu-
tors from each Side. Yes, Hon Mem-
ber for Bia West?
Dr Augustine Tawiah (NDC -- Bia West) 1:50 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you.
The Hon Member who made the
Statement shares border with me in
the Western North Region and we
swim together or we drown together.
This is larger than just an incident in
Juaboso; it is a reflection of what is
happening in our country, and we may
think that this has happened and the
gentleman has been confirmed and is
now the DCE. But it is a total reflec-
tion on the political process of our
country; when it is good, it reflects the
culture and the polity in our country
but as it gets dirty, so to speak and for
the lack of a better word, it means that
this is not enough to just limit it to
Juaboso; it is a broader issue that af-
fects our country on how we select our
leaders.
Mr Speaker, the framers of our
Constitution were very careful in
making sure that the person is nomi-
nated and approved by the Assembly.
So, when there are these political
gymnastics; some people are shut out,
others are forced by the Military or the
Police such that they would not partic-
ipate in voting for the nominee be-
cause they are perceived to represent a
certain culture, it is a very serious in-
dictment on the citizens because the
same culture that appears in the As-
sembly, almost always translate into
the main election that occurs in the
country. So, this is a serious matter
that I think merits our attention on
what should be done.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Member
who made the Statement indicated
that for this reason, he would like to
call on Parliament as a House to con-
stitute a probe into areas where these
schemes are reported to have taken
place, and to propose measures to rec-
tify the situation. Mr Speaker, we have
seen it in the press; in several places,
including places where sitting Mem-
bers of Parliament were prevented
from going to the venue or in some
cases, even when they went, they were
brutalised; they were threatened, and
so many things that had happened. So,
I support the Hon Member who made
the Statement that indeed, a probe
should be conducted by Parliament so
that we find a lasting solution to these
anomalies in the process of approving
District Chief Executives in our areas.
Statements

Mr Speaker, it is also gratifying

to note that the Presiding Member of

Juaboso is in Court over this matter

because the Presiding Member is the

one who is supposed to call for the

meeting. Interestingly, the Presiding

Member himself was not served by the

Assembly to be part of that approval;

therefore, one would wonder what is

going on. And every MP here is a

Member of the Assembly; I do not

know how many people could indicate

that indeed, on certain occasions, they

were supposed to actually be at As-

sembly meetings, but however, the

MP himself or herself was not even in-

vited so; a Presiding Member of that

Assembly was also not invited.

Mr Speaker, the issue is that this

matter merits attention from Parlia-

ment and hopefully, a probe could be

instituted so that a lasting solution

found; as the Hon Member who made

the Statement had indicated.

Mr Speaker, with these few

words, I thank the Hon Member who

made the Statement, and I thank you

too, Mr Speaker.

Minister for Local Govern-

ment, Decentralisation and Rural

Development (Mr Daniel Botwe)

[MP]: Mr Speaker, I thank you. I

would like to make some contribu-

tions to the Statement that has been

made.

Mr Speaker, I think it is im-

portant we understand our Local Gov-

ernment system very well. The Presi-

dent makes nominations; it is commu-

nicated to the Assemblies; the Secre-

tary to the Assembly who happens to

be the Coordinating Director, informs

the Presiding Member, and by law - the 1992 Constitution and per Act

936, the Electoral Commission super-

vises the election. At no point in this

process is the Executive President of

the land involved in the confirmation

process. Beyond nomination, the Ex-

ecutive arm of Government is not in-

volved in the confirmation process!

The name of the person who is rightly

nominated by the President, is sent to

the Assembly through the Coordinat-

ing Director, and the Presiding Mem-

ber of the Assembly convenes a meet-

ing, invites the Electoral Commission,

and the confirmation process takes

place.

Mr Speaker, I am unable to see at

what point the Executive arm of Gov-

ernment is involved in that for it to

merit, surprisingly, a Statement that

has been made on this Floor that this

is not a cause to be left at the doorstep

of the Executive or at the Presidency.

What cause are we talking about? The

cause of the confirmation process?

Which law? About what practice

could anybody point at this that an As-

sembly, the Executive arm of Govern-

ment was involved? The Assembly

can be convened only by the Presiding

Statements

Member, and their elections are super-

vised by the Electoral Commission.

Mr Speaker, I quote from his State-

ment, and it reads:

“It is not an issue that should only be dealt with by the ruling NPP”

This is totally baseless, unneces-

sary and without a foundation. How is

the New Patriotic Party involved in

this process? Do we invite political

parties to supervise Assembly meet-

ings?
rose
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:50 p.m.
Hon Minister, please hold on.
Hon Akandoh, you have brought
a Statement; you have been given time
to read it; somebody is commenting
and you are talking. Please —
Mr Botwe 1:50 p.m.
Mr Speaker, so, how
is the ruling NPP involved in the pro-
cess of the confirmation of the
MMDCEs for it to appear in such a
Statement which has been admitted on
this Floor? ‘This is not NPP Ghana or Akufo-Addo's Ghana', totally base- less, unwarranted, and I am surprised
that this Statement has been admitted
on the floor of the Parliament of the
Republic of Ghana because in the law
- we made the law; the Act is ap- proved here.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:50 p.m.
Hon Minister, I wish you did not go
there.
Mr Botwe 1:50 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I am
reading what is contained in the State-
ment.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:50 p.m.
That this Statement has been admitted
—
Mr Botwe 2 p.m.
Yes, it has been ad-
mitted, Mr Speaker. And this clearly
says that ‘this is not NPP's Ghana or Akufo-Addo's Ghana. Mr Speaker, there is nothing called NPP's Ghana; there is nothing called Akufo-Addo's Ghana. And the political party, the
New Patriotic Party nor the President
are not involved in the confirmation
process of the MMDCEs that are nom-
inated.

The laws that we made are clear.

Act 936 passed by this House --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2 p.m.
Hon Minister, respectfully hold on.
Mr Edward A. Bawa 2 p.m.
On a
point of order.
Mr Speaker, it is very refreshing
to have the Hon Minister for Local
Government, Decentralisation and
Rural Development give us some in-
sight into the processes. In doing that,
Statements

he should not impugn Mr Speaker's sense of judgement by saying that he

is surprised that the Statement was ad-

mitted. This is so inappropriate and

unparliamentary. Hon Dan Botwe is a

very respected Member of this House

and I know that he would do the right

thing by withdrawing that statement.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2 p.m.
Hon Minister, personally, I did not
think that portion was in good taste.
Once Mr Speaker has admitted it --
Mr Botwe 2 p.m.
Mr Speaker, it has
been admitted and one's opinion can be made on it. It is an observation.
This is because a Statement which is
going to be published in the Hansard
of this House is saying that this matter
should not be dealt with by the ruling
New Patriotic Party (NPP). This is an
admission to the fact that a political
party is involved in the process of con-
firming an MMDCE. That is not the
case.
Nowhere in Act 936 which we
passed in this Parliament does it say
that a political party gets involved in
this. Again, this is not NPP's Ghana or Akufo-Addo's Ghana. If it is allowed to stand in this House - I am saying that I am surprised --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2 p.m.
Hon Minister, I share your position
perfectly, but I wish you did not use
the angle of surprise that this State-
ment was admitted. Could you re-
spectfully take off that aspect?
Mr Botwe 2 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I am no
longer surprised -- [Laughter] -- that is consistent with what is happening,
such as this Statement that has been
made in this House. I am no longer
surprised at all but let it be made clear
that it is full of fallacy. The process of
confirmation of MMDCEs is aligned
in the 1992 Constitution and in Act
936. Nowhere in the Act is a political
party or the Executive President in-
volved.
It is clear that the presiding
Member calls for the meeting of the
Assembly, he invites the Electoral
Commission and the process takes
place. That is it, therefore, for any-
body to make a Statement that politi-
cal parties are involved is not only ma-
licious but also false.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2 p.m.
Hon Minister, hold on again.
Hon First Deputy Minority
Whip?
Mr A. Ibrahim 2 p.m.
Mr Speaker,
with all due respect to the Hon Minis-
ter for Local Government, Decentrali-
sation and Rural Development, this is
a House of Parliament and so long as
we are sitting here, you are the one
who presides. The Standing Orders
Statements

give you the sole power to admit

Statements in this House and you have

done that. Any Hon Member may

make brief comments on the State-

ment, but to raise doubts on your com-

petency to admit Statements in this

House must be withdrawn.

Mr Speaker, you are the sole

judge in admitting Statements in this

House. When points of order are

raised, you are the sole judge. Hon

Bawa has raised a point of order on

that aspect of the statement by the Hon

Minister for Local Government, De-

centralisation and Rural Development

that he is surprised.

Mr Speaker, Standing Order 93

(5) reads:

“The conduct of Mr Speaker, Members, the Chief Justice and

Judges of the Superior Court of

Judicature shall not be raised, ex-

cept upon a substantive mo-

tion…”

Mr Speaker, your conduct in con-

ducting the Business of the House is

being questioned, such that Hon

Members are even surprised that you

have admitted such a Statement. I

have a role to play as a leader of this

House to assist you in presiding over

this House and if anybody or Minister

wants to question your conduct or

competency, I would jealously protest

against that.

Mr Speaker, on that note, you

have to direct the Hon Minister for

Local Government, Decentralisation

and Rural Development to retract that

portion about your competency. We

must give due respect to the Chair on

which you are sitting. I came to this

House together with him, we have

both been here for four terms and we

know more than that. Just as we re-

spect him as a Minister, he must also

respect you as a Speaker. [Hear!
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2 p.m.
Respectfully, Hon Minister, kindly do
away with that portion for me.
Mr Botwe 2 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I would
not go there. To satisfy the Hon First
Deputy Minority Whip, I withdraw
the words that I was surprised that the
Statement was admitted. I said I was
not surprised, so that Statement has
been withdrawn.
What has been stated here is
baseless and not factual. The ruling
NPP does not play any role in the con-
firmation of MMDCEs, so it is not
true. This is not NPP's Ghana or Akufo-Addo's Ghana and that state- ment has not been made by anybody.
Ghana is Ghana and nobody has said
anywhere that Ghana belongs to the
NPP or Akufo-Addo.
Statements

Mr Speaker, I would end by saying

that the 1992 Constitution and Act

936 are very clear. All that the Presi-

dent does is to make a nomination.

When he makes a nomination, it goes

to the Assembly. The processes are

clear, the Presiding Member calls for

an Assembly meeting, he invites the

Electoral Commission and the process

is done. Members can have problems

with the process and comment on it.

However, to involve a ruling party or

the President in that process is totally

unfair because we make the laws here

and should be clear about what the law

says.

So, a Presiding member who

conducts the affairs and the Electoral

Commission who also play their role

go through the process. As at now, in

Ghana, we have 261 Districts and so

far, 251 MMDCEs have been con-

firmed. I am confident that in the next

two weeks, the other 10 would be con-

firmed. We would then have the full

complement of the MMDCEs to

strengthen our local governance sys-

tem.

Mr Speaker, I would also urge

Members of Parliament to also try as

much as possible to attend Assembly

meetings and not only when they are

going to confirm MMDCEs. Even

though they are ex-officio members,

they should try as much as possible to

attend and enrich the debate at the lo-

cal government level.

Mr Speaker, with these few

words, I thank you very much.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2 p.m.
We are left with Leadership. A leader
can yield to another person.
Mr A. Ibrahim 2 p.m.
Mr Speaker,
since we have two other Statements to
be taken --
Mr Speaker, would you adjourn
the House after contributions to this
Statement or we would take the re-
maining two Statements?
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:10 p.m.
Let us finish with this Statement first.
Mr A. Ibrahim 2:10 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I
asked this because if you would ad-
journ the House after this Statement,
then you could give opportunity to
one Hon Member from each Side be-
fore Leadership could contribute.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:20 p.m.
Hon First Deputy Whip, let us finish
with this Statement after which I
would come to Leadership for direc-
tions.
Statements

The time is 2.00 p.m. and I direct

that Sitting be extended beyond the

normal Sitting hours.

First Deputy Minority Whip

(Mr Ahmed Ibrahim): Mr Speaker, I

thank you for the opportunity to con-

tribute to the Statement, and I also

commend the Hon Member who made

the Statement for bringing the ap-

proval of the MMDCEs to the atten-

tion of the House.

Mr Speaker, the importance of

the decentralisation system in Ghana

cannot be over-emphasised. We all

know what Ghana used to be and

when, in 1988, we went back to the

District Assembly concept - what Ghana is now. The 1992 Constitution

has decentralised governance to the

grassroots and it has given the people

at the local level the opportunity to

take part in the decision-making pro-

cess.

Mr Speaker, the Executive Presi-

dent resides in the nation's capital. He is an individual with structures but he

might not know who is good or bad in

Fomena or Paga. He might also not

know who would be able to represent

the good people of Suame very well.

It is against this background that the

framers of the 1992 Constitution, in

giving the power of appointment to

the Central Government, which is the

President, decided to give the power

of approval to the local people through

their local representatives who are the

District Assembly members.

Mr Speaker, we have gone so far

to be where we are, but the approval

processes of the MMDCEs have be-

come a matter under discussion. If we

pretend that we do not know what is

happening in this country, then we de-

ceive ourselves. I belong to the Banda

District Assembly and in the process

of consultation, I was involved. I was

also involved in the approval process

by the invitation of Government

through its representative at the re-

gional level, which is the Hon Re-

gional Minister. They said I was a

member of the Assembly and that they

hoped I would assist to make sure that

the election was successful. The kind

of cooperation that the Hon Regional

Minister gave -- I may belong to the Opposition Party but as an ex-officio

member of the Assembly, the Hon Re-

gional Minister did not say that I had

no vote and therefore, I did not matter.

He approached me and I also offered

the help that was needed.

Mr Speaker, the approval of the

nominee for the Banda District As-

sembly was 100 per cent because the

chiefs were highly respected; the Hon

Member from the Opposition Party

was respected; the Assembly mem-

bers who were to give the approval

were also respected, and all those con-

sultations and engagements were done

by the Government through the Hon

Regional Minister. So, if anybody

Statements

says that the Government, apart from

the nomination, had no role, it is a lie.

The Government extended the role to

further consultation, dialogue, and en-

gagements, which is a good thing. In

doing so, the Bono Region was one of

the regions out of the 16 which had a

very successful and peaceful election

throughout. Out of the 11 Assemblies

that the Hon Minister talked of, we

would not even get one in the Bono

Region.

Mr Speaker, however, there are

serious matters that we must engage

our efforts in. There is an adage in

Akan which says, “Sɛ yɛmmfa nni w'akyi a, wose agorɔ yi yɛ dɛ.'' To wit, “if it does not concern you, you would say it is good.'' but if it has something to do with you, then you

would know how it feels. Someone

was asked to define “poverty” and the person said that poverty cannot be de-

fined unless one feels it.

Mr Speaker, as I speak, the Hon

Member for Kumawu, Mr Philip Ba-

soah, was chased out of the Assembly

during the approval process because

he is not in the Opposition Party.

Should we gloss over this? Let us as-

sume that the Hon Member from the

Opposition Party was chased out of

the approval process - what would have happened? As I speak, the repre-

sentative of the Ashanti Caucus, the

Hon Member for Atwima Nwabiagya

South, Mr Anhwere, was also chased

out and manhandled in Juabeng.

These are matters we should not just

gloss over. If we have something to do

to assist the Hon Minister for Local

Government, Decentralisaton and Ru-

ral Development - he was not the Hon Minister for that sector yesterday;

somebody was. Today, he is the Hon

Minister for that sector, but tomorrow,

he may not. So, if we have something

to do to support him, we have to do it.

If it does not go on well and we want

to say it, he should give us the oppor-

tunity to say it.

Mr Speaker, beyond this, after

the approval, we may need one an-

other. This is my third term in Leader-

ship - and approval does not mean it is the end of it. The efforts of the Hon

Member for Juabuso would still be

needed so long as the development of

Juabuso is concerned. The efforts of

Mr Basoah, would be needed so long

as the development of Kumawu is

concerned. The efforts of Mr An-

hwere would be needed - we all have a role to play in the development pro-

cess. So, if matters and concerns like

these are raised and we gloss over

them, we may not be able to build

upon the decentralisation concept that

was handed over to us by the earlier

practitioners.

Mr Speaker, on this note, I want

to make a case. The Hon Minister for

Local Government, Decentralisation

and Rural Development said he is not

Statements

aware of the issues that have been

raised. Cases have been raised in

Juabuso, Kumawu, and Juabeng, so

we need to engage and iron out those

issues - on a very good note, it would do this House a great service. The Hon

Minister for Local Government, De-

centralisation and Rural Development

has been his political party's General Secretary before, so he has a lot of in-

stitutional memory which he would

need other Members, other former

Hon Ministers for Local Government

and Rural Development, former As-

sembly Members, and the experiences

of Hon Members to be added. We

want to build a nation.

Mr Speaker, if this Statement

may be referred to the Committee on

Local Government and Rural Devel-

opment so that, together with the Hon

Minister, we would engage - with all due respect, if there is the need for

some reforms, we would be able to do

the necessary consultations. The Pres-

ident has said that he would revisit the

matter of the election of MMDCEs. If

there are matters on election, even

election through electoral college,

how do we solve that? If, because of

this, there may be the need for us to

initiate or expedite action on the elec-

tion of MMDCEs on the universal

adult suffrage - These are matters that we should not just sit and say we

would want to go a particular way.

So, with this, Mr Speaker, I

would want to plead that this State-

ment be referred to the Committee on

Local Government and Rural Devel-

opment so that in a friendly manner,

we would engage the Hon Minister for

Local Government, Decentralisation,

and Rural Development. In that meet-

ing, we can tell the Hon Minister what

went on well and what did not go well.

Mr Speaker, I said earlier that in

the Bono Region, the elections went

on very successfully. What magic did

the Hon Minister there do and what

magic could the Hon Ministers in

other Regions not do? We would have

to learn from best practices, but if we

come and sit down with the impres-

sion that once the President mentions

one's name, we impose him or her on the people; that is a seed of corruption.

Mr Speaker, if I know very well

that the people did not vote for me, but

I was imposed on the people, I may

not owe allegiance to the people; my

allegiance would be to who nominated

me and brought me to power. The en-

try into power is as important as what

you use the power for.

On that note, I would still want

to plead that we refer this Statement to

the Committee on Local Government

Statements

and Rural Development. I am not say-

ing we should call anyone to the Com-

mittee on Privileges. No! We would

want to improve upon the status quo.

Mr Speaker, why is it that up to

now 250 MMDCEs have been ap-

proved, and out of that number, there

are some Police cases. Even today, if

we go to some social media platforms,

you would see videos with sounds

like, “O, meregye me sika” and “O, memfa mma wo”. All these are matters on social media - If our children are watching these things, where are we

taking our electoral processes to? The

worrying aspect is when the Hon Min-

ister for Local Government, Decen-

tralisation, and Rural Development

said the Electoral Commission super-

vised the elections. If the independent

Electoral Commission of this country

is in charge of the approval processes

of the MMDCEs and we are seeing

such practices in our electoral pro-

cesses, what happens to the credibility

and integrity of our electoral pro-

cesses?

Mr Speaker, we have matters that

we have to solve; let us not gloss over

them. These are serious issues and the

earlier we engaged to think about the

way forward, the better.

Mr Speaker, with these few

words, I thank you for the oppor-

tunity.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:20 p.m.
These are not few words. Anyway,
yes, Hon Deputy Majority Leader?
Deputy Majority Leader (Mr
Alexander K. Afenyo-Markin): Mr
Speaker, I thank you for the oppor-
tunity to make some few comments on
the matter before us. In principle,
nothing stops a Member of Parliament
from raising such issues. Indeed, it is
a primary bonafide of an MP, but how
it is presented becomes a problem in a
manner as presented in this Statement.
Mr Speaker, I have been an As-
sembly Member and a Presiding
Member before. [Interruption] No, I
was an elected Assembly Member and
an elected Presiding Member. I know
that at the Assembly, it is purely par-
tisan. We do not use Party colours for
the elections but we know - NPP, NDC, and CPP - we know that we sponsor our Party men and women to
participate. [Interruption.] I am say-
ing so; if Hon Kofi Adams who has
been a National Organiser of his Party
can on Five Points of Fellowship tell
me that it is not true, I would want him
to do so.
Mr Speaker, these are facts. Alt-
hough we would not want to admit it
because of the constitutionality of
same, it is the reality, and if they
would want to say “no”, they should go ahead and say so. I will come back.
Statements
Mr James K. Avedzi 2:20 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, I thank you very much. My
Hon Colleague says, “they know”. Mr Speaker, if he knows, he should prove
with evidence. I am saying this be-
cause, if in my constituency, an NDC
member contested an Assembly elec-
tion, it does not mean that the NDC
Party supported him. He is an NDC
member and he would be an Assembly
member; the same way an NPP mem-
ber would also contest and win. That
does not mean that the Party supports
that person. So, if he has evidence to
prove, he must do so; if not, he should
just leave it that way that the people
who go to the Assemblies belong to
political parties. It does not mean that
political parties support and sponsor
them to win those elections. So, let us
leave it as it is. They are Party mem-
bers who have won elections to the
Assemblies. It does not mean that they
were sponsored by political parties.
That is the point.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:20 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, I thank him for his comment
and for expressing his own views
about what I have said, but just by way
of reference, we last held Assembly
elections in 2019 and the General Sec-
retary of the NDC Party soon after
came out publicly to say that the Party
had won a certain percentage of the
Metropolitan, Municipal and District
Assembly elections. To me, this is the
statement that the General Secretary
of the NDC made publicly, and if he
had no basis, he would not have said
so. Because, after all, if the elections
are non-partisan, how would the Gen-
eral Secretary of an important party
like the NDC boldly say for public
records that the party members have
got a certain percentage of the elec-
tions held in the country.
Mr Speaker, it is on the basis --
rose
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:20 p.m.
Hon Deputy Majority Leader, hold on.
Hon Member, a Leader is speak-
ing and you want to come on a point
of order?
Mr Y. Sulemana 2:20 p.m.
Mr Speaker,
yes, please. I thank you very much.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:20 p.m.
Let me give it to the Hon Member for
Bole/Bamboi.
Mr Y. Sulemana 2:20 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I
thank you. I am the senior, so let me
speak.
Mr Speaker, taking it from what
you have just said, our Leader is talk-
ing and we are up on a point of order.
That is the concern. This is our Leader
who has been here before us and we
are learning from. For him to make
Statements

such sweeping statements and go

freely, it should not be accepted.

Mr Speaker, he has mentioned

the name of the General Secretary of

the NDC here as having made a cer-

tain comment. He has to provide evi-

dence to buttress that allegation. The

man is not here. So, we call on him as

our learned Senior to do the needful.

I thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:20 p.m.
Yes, Hon Deputy Majority Leader?
But I believe the statement he is mak-
ing is of judicial notice. Almost, every
Ghanaian heard it. [Uproar.] You did
not hear?
Anyway, Hon Deputy Majority
Leader, go on --
They are challenging you; if you
could --
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:20 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, at least, I have one publica-
tion: “NDC Won District Assembly Elections -- Asiedu Nketia”. [Up- roar] -- With the greatest respect, I am quoting. Mr Speaker, it was re-
ported by Modernghana, date --
Mr Speaker, you know I will not
make a Statement when I am not sure.
The date is here.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:20 p.m.
Hon Deputy Majority Leader —
Probably, you may be challeng-
ing the medium that he is coming up
with, but this statement is one that a
lot of people are aware. I heard it and
a lot of people did same.
Mr James K. Avedzi 2:30 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, we do not know what the
Hon Member is reading. He is reading
from his phone. Mr Speaker, we do
not know what the Hon Member is
reading; he is reading from his phone.
He should produce the evidence and
let us all see it. That is the point. Prob-
ably, he is not even reading anything,
but he is quoting from memory.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:30 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, the National Democratic
Congress (NDC) held its Congress in
the year 2011 in Sunyani. Over there,
the General Secretary told his audi-
ence that the Party won 60 per cent of
the 2010 District Assembly Elections.
Then again, in the year 2019, soon af-
ter the elections, the General Secre-
tary again repeated the performance of
the Party in the supposed non-partisan
elections.
Mr Speaker, the gravamen of my
contention here is to the effect that we
know that although these elections are
not to be partisan, we the partisan
players sponsor people to participate.
It is a fact. On the basis of that, the
President told us a couple of years ago
Statements

that he wants us to now legislate on it,

constitutionalise it, and make it legal.

That which we have been doing be-

hind closed doors, we should bring it

on to the mainstream and get it done

properly.

If that is being done, obviously,

we would know that it does not take

the President to nominate for some-

body to sponsor. I would not attempt

to dispute the allegations of Hon

Akandoh. I respect him so much and I

was not there. However, I would like

to put on record that some individuals

who are either politicians or political

actors have made it their business of

using such nominations to frustrate

Government Business at the local

government level. I dare say so.

Mr Speaker, all manner of

schemes are employed, and as a poli-

tician, when you employ a scheme and

are outwitted, must you cry? If you

cry, whom do you expect to listen to

you? One deliberately pays losing bo-

nus and when it does not succeed - When people are crying for Metropol-

itan, Municipal and District Chief Ex-

ecutives (MMDCEs) at the local gov-

ernment level - We need them there, and some attempt doing these things

to frustrate - We know it, I have been a Presiding Member before. Some-

times, these things can come from

within or without -- [Interruption]. Hon Colleagues, I want us to face the

facts, so let us not pretend. What the

Hon Member has said is very im-

portant, but let us now lift the veil and

deal with the issue. I have been there

before and I know.

So, I agree that there are prob-

lems down there, especially when it

comes to the nominations --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:30 p.m.
Hon Deputy Majority Leader, hold on.
Hon Edward Bawa, what is it?
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:30 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, this is about the fifth point of
order which comes up to nothing.
Would he not patiently sit down and
listen to me in silence so that I can fin-
ish? We allowed Hon Ahmed Ibrahim
who is the First Deputy Minority
Whip to flow and that is what you are
doing -- [Interruption] -- What is the Hon Member's ‘number' in this House?
Some Hon Members 2:30 p.m.
What is
your ‘number'?
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:30 p.m.
My num-
ber is ‘Acting 1'. [Laughter]. He is at the back-middle bench, so what is his
‘number'? He should sit down.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:30 p.m.
Hon Edward Bawa?
Mr Edward A. Bawa 2:30 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, thank you very much.
Statements

As we speak, we have a case be-

fore the Police Service that has to do

with an appointee who openly indi-

cated that he had given out moneys on

which basis, he expected that they

should have voted for him.

Mr Speaker, we have the Hon

Deputy Majority Leader of the House

openly indicating that people go to the

extent of paying losing bonuses. This

is a crime, and he is saying this on the

floor of Parliament without evidence.

He must show proof and do same by

going to the Police or withdraw this

statement because he is scandalising

almost everybody. He is saying that

people are paying bribes for others to

vote against MMDCEs and this is the

Hon Deputy Majority Leader of the

Republic of Ghana's Parliament.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:30 p.m.
Hon Afenyo-Markin, reframe that.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:30 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, an act that has gained notori-
ety in Ghana? We can guess the head-
line and there is no problem.
The point here is that the things
that we know, when an opportunity
offers itself, let us discuss them so that
we get the solution we want. Hon Ah-
med Ibrahim clearly said that our de-
mocracy is on its journey to maturity,
but if we do not put in place the nec-
essary support blocks, we cannot get
there. So, let us face the facts.
Mr Speaker, again, another prob-
lem I have with the Statement is its
partisan nature. If there is an issue,
why must we necessarily mention
NPP? Please, it is never correct. What
we have to do is to be fair in the way
we raise the matter and that is what
will get people rally around it, but if
we are not being fair, being partisan,
and blaming others - Looking at the Statement, there are serious allega-
tions being made: a secret meeting and
so on.
Is there any such evidence to that
effect? This Statement is full of innu-
endos and contains nothing factual. If
the Hon Member who made the State-
ment was so minded, why did he not
report the matter to the Police? Why
has he not taken the appropriate steps
to address this matter and yet there is
a statement here calling for a referral
to a Committee.
Mr Speaker, first of all, we must
establish the basis upon which a Com-
mittee of this House must invest re-
sources into looking into an issue. So
far, the Hon Member who made the
Statement has failed -- one goes around accusing people by saying that
there was a meeting to which he or she
has information on certain Electoral
Commission (EC) officials. Why has
that EC official not been reported to
his or her bosses? The Hon Member
has not said he has done so --
Statements
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:30 p.m.
Hon Deputy Majority Leader, hold on.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:30 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, it is the Hon Member who
made the Statement. A bad precedent
should not be -- [Interruption] -- I have no problem yielding, and with
respect, Hon Akandoh's shouting must cease.
Mr Speaker, I have no problem
yielding but what the Hon Member
must know is that he is the one who
made the Statement. Well, his Senior
Colleagues on the front bench are ad-
vising him and he should oblige and
not treat them as he is doing.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:30 p.m.
Is
there any provision in the Standing
Orders that stipulates that the Hon
Member who made the Statement can-
not come under any point of order?
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:40 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, by parity of reasoning, he is
the originator of the Statement and we
-- 2:40 p.m.
rose
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:40 p.m.
Hon Member, what is your issue?
Mr Akandoh 2:40 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I am
most grateful.
Mr Speaker, I put it to the Hon
Deputy Majority Leader that he has
not read the Statement - including the Hon Minister responsible for Local
Government, Decentralisation, and
Rural Development. I put it on record
that I have not said that the NPP Gov-
ernment is involved. All I am saying
is that this is not an NPP matter or
President Akufo-Addo matter. Is it?
Mr Speaker, the Hon Member
should show me anywhere in the
Statement that I accused anybody, the
President or the party. Mr Speaker, he
did not read the Statement and he is
saying whatever he likes. I can give
him a copy of the Statement for him to
show me where I stated that this issue
has to do with the NPP or the Presi-
dent. I just said that it is not an issue
of the NPP and the President, yet he
throws his hands without reading the
Statement.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:40 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, the Statement has four pages
unnumbered and the last sentence of
the third page reads: “This is not a course to be left at the doorstep of the
Executive. This is not an issue that
should only be dealt with by the ruling
NPP.”
Mr Speaker, the point here is - I do not mark grammar in this House
because I do not have it, but if in the
Statements

same vein, he wanted to deal with a

matter on its own strength, then why

did he not mention the NDC? What

has this got to do with the ruling NPP?

Why did he mention the NPP? Mr

Speaker, he then says in the next line

that this is not NPP Ghana or Akufo-

Addo's Ghana. What was the import of the statement? Mr Speaker, he has

referred to “This is not an NPP Ghana or Akufo-Addo Ghana”, and I am say- ing that the introduction of this phrase

was unnecessary. I do contend and I

stay on it.

Mr Speaker, I would repeat for

the records that our Hon Colleagues

have demonstrated time without num-

ber that they are intolerant. Hon Ah-

med Ibrahim spoke and made strong

categorical statements, yet we listened

to him, but when it gets to our turn,

they would be shouting. Mr Speaker,

they had better sit down, listen in si-

lence and learn from what we are also

saying. Whenever they have the op-

portunity, they speak loudly but when

another person is speaking, then they

want to make noise and shout. What is

that?

Mr Speaker --
Mr Avedzi 2:40 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I have --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:40 p.m.
Hon Deputy Minority Leader, I have
not given you the Floor.
Mr Avedzi 2:40 p.m.
Mr Speaker, we are
all Hon Members of this House and he
says that we are shouting and making
noise. Mr Speaker, should we allow
him to tell another Hon Member of
Parliament that he is shouting?
Mr Speaker, please give us the
Floor when we rise on a point of order
because we do not just rise on our feet.
I wanted to know whether it is now a
crime to mention the NPP in a State-
ment and not mention the NDC. The
NDC is not in power; it is the NPP that
is ruling Ghana, so is it a crime to
mention NPP in a Statement, for him
to rise and say that we are making
noise.
Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague
should just withdraw that because we
are all equal here and he is a Hon
Leader and I am also a Hon Leader.
All of us contested elections and won
so he should withdraw that statement
and apologise to everybody because
we are not shouting but rather making
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:40 p.m.
Hon Deputy Majority Leader, con-
clude but also address the issue of
making noise.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:40 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, when I was on my feet, there
was a loud shout from Hon Akandoh
and you heard it. It was aimed at dis-
rupting me, so how else should I ad-
Statements

dress that particular matter? I have ad-

dressed it -- [Interruption] -- It was not in the microphone but he did.

Mr Speaker, the point we are

making here is that he can raise the

same matter to enable us to build con-

sensus, but when he decides to ap-

proach it in a manner as has been pre-

sented to us, then it becomes problem-

atic. We have a Statement that cannot

stand any test because it is full of in-

nuendos. In fact, a Statement that the

Hon Member himself did not give us

proof that certain steps have been

taken by him to correct the supposed

wrong, yet he comes to the House of

Parliament to tell us that we should

form a Committee to investigate. Mr

Speaker, what should we investigate?

I expect our Hon Colleagues to

immediately build consensus with us

on the way forward regarding the elec-

tion of MMDCEs. This is what is im-

portant. Mr Speaker, the last time this

matter came up, they chickened out at

the eleventh hour. They gave their

word and said that their party - Mr Speaker, if they are ready to get on

board, and it is direct elections, then

our country would be better served.

They should put up their candidate

and another group would also put up a

candidate, then we would know how

to go about it.

Again, I need to emphasise what

Hon Dan Botwe said, that it is not the

Government that undertakes the pro-

cess of confirmation. The Presiding

Member is not Government -- [Inter- ruption] --
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:40 p.m.
Hon Deputy Majority Leader, please
conclude.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:40 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, they are making noise.
Mr Avedzi 2:50 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I made
a request that the Hon Deputy Major-
ity Leader should apologise by saying
that our Side of the House is making
noise and shouting. Mr Speaker, you
ignored that and this has given him the
power to continue to refer to us that
we are making noise. We are once
again registering our disapproval of
that statement and we would request
again that he withdraws the statement
that we are making noise. Please, we
are not making noise. Mr Speaker,
please direct the Hon Member to do
the needful. He should do the proper
thing.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
Hon Deputy Minority Leader, please,
if we say somebody is making noise,
in your own assessment, what is it?
When we were in school, if we
talk in class --
Statements
Mr Avedzi 2:50 a.m.
Mr Speaker, if
somebody is making noise, it means
that whatever the person is saying has
no sense; it is not sensible. That is

This is the meaning, unless you have

a different meaning, Mr Speaker.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
Well, the way I am --
Mr Avedzi 2:50 a.m.
So Mr Speaker,
what is your understanding of making
noise?
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
I
am not here to actually take sides that
he is making noise.
Mr Avedzi 2:50 a.m.
So you agree with
me, Mr Speaker.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
Hon Members have been speaking
along while --
Mr Avedzi 2:50 a.m.
So you would agree
with me that with what he said, he is
not actually saying anything against
us that what we are saying does not
make any sense at all.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
I
am not taking it as an insult.
Mr Avedzi 2:50 a.m.
But, Mr Speaker, we
have taken it as an insult to us.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
Hon Afenyo-Markin, please do some-
thing about it for us to have our peace
as a House. Once they take it as an in-
sult, just do something.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:50 a.m.
Mr
Speaker, there is noise in the room.

Mr Speaker, they know I would

give them that which they so desire,

that I should not describe the overly

disruptive and distractive behaviours

of some Hon Members which did not

enter the microphone as being noise as

such, and I should not describe that

disruptive conduct as being shouting.

Mr Speaker, if that is so, it is so.
rose
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
Hon Deputy Minority Leader, at
times, sitting here, I can say there is
noise in the Chamber. I do not think
we should construe that as an insult.
But like you are insisting that your
Side takes it as one, I have asked him
to take it off, and he has done that.
Mr Avedzi 2:50 a.m.
Mr Speaker, if Hon
Deputy Majority Leader says, “if”, firstly, it is conditional, and secondly,
he substituted “making noise” with “disruptive”. He is saying the same thing. We are not children here. We
understand what he is doing. We
should not accept anything; he should
Statements

do the right thing. Is it too difficult for

him to say he withdraws the state-

ment, for him to give different defini-

tions to insult us the more by saying

“if that is what we want”?
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
Hon Deputy Majority Leader, do
away with the “if”.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:50 a.m.
Mr
Speaker, the disruptive conduct that I
observed is what I described as noise
but Hon Colleagues take exception to
describe same as noise; it is hereby
withdrawn.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
Very well. So conclude.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:50 a.m.
Mr
Speaker, I think that statement was
enough a conclusion of my comment
since they do not want to hear me.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
Yes, Hon Deputy Majority Leader, we
still have two Statements.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:50 a.m.
Mr
Speaker, we have agreed to call it a
day.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
Am I getting the indication that we are
calling it a day?
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:50 a.m.
Yes, Mr
Speaker.
Mr A. Ibrahim 2:50 a.m.
Mr Speaker,
since this should not only be a House
of lamentations but a House of solu-
tions, as I ended my contributions, I
thought you were going to refer the
Statement to the Committee on Local
Government and Rural Development
so that we engage them. The contribu-
tion from the Hon Deputy Majority
Leader that we should look for solu-
tions and the way forward, when the
Committee engages, we can make rec-
ommendations and initiate even re-
form processes.
But if we lament and after the
lamentation, we end up, tomorrow, we
may be making and contributing on a
similar Statement in four years' time. I plead with you, Mr Speaker, for a re-
ferral to, say, the Committee on Local
Government and Rural Development
to engage the Hon Minister for Local
Government, Decentralisation, and
Rural Development and bring recom-
mendations for reforms.
Mr Speaker, reforms are neces-
sary in democratic dispensations, but
if we just come and make comments,
lament and go --
When they started with Hon Ba-
soah, we kept quiet; yesterday, it was
Hon Anhwere. Who knows whose
turn it would be tomorrow? Maybe,
tomorrow, it would be Hon Afenyo-

Statements

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This is

just a humble application.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:50 a.m.
Mr
Speaker, while I was seated, Hon Dan
Botwe and I had some discussion.
Mr Speaker, he firmly gave an in-
dication to me, though not for the rec-
ord, but because of the Hon Member's application, I need to bring it to your
attention. The Hon Minister said he
would make a Statement on this whole
matter, so, in my view, let us put this
matter on ice; let him come with a
Statement and, upon bringing the
Statement, we could now incorporate
all these matters because obviously a
Statement under Order 70(2) would
definitely be referred so that we can
have a complete discussion.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
Very well. I was also thinking in line
with that because I have taken some
indications from Hon Nii Lantey
Vanderpuye. Let us hold on. If the
Hon Minister is coming up with a
Statement, I think it would give a
broader discussion on the topic. This
is because personally, I also have
other issues that we can all discuss to-
gether.
On that note, we are not making
the referral.
Mr A. Ibrahim 2:50 a.m.
Mr Speaker,
even though we informed the other
two Hon Colleagues that their State-
ments were to be taken today since
they were admitted by you today, if
because of the time, you have post-
poned them to tomorrow, they would
be informed to make copies and make
copies available Hon Members tomor-
row for presentation.
Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:50 a.m.
Tomorrow, God willing, we would
take one from Hon Dr Stephen Amoah
and one from Hon Yusif Sulemana.
Please prepare; tomorrow, we may
add other Statements, but yours would
be taken as priority.
So Hon Dr Amoah and Hon
Sulemana, tomorrow, we would take
your Statements.
On that note, we bring the cur-
tains down. The time is beyond 2.00
p.m., so we do not need to take a mo-
tion for adjournment. I would there-
fore go ahead to adjourn.
ADJOURNMENT 2:50 a.m.