Well, I cannot agree with
you more than that. As Leaders, it is your
duty to support the Speaker and I would
want to plead with you leaders to support
it from the basis of facts and not rumours.
So, for some of these things, please make
sure that as Leaders, you trace them and
get to know the facts before you release
them to your Members. Even yesterday, I
was blamed for a number of Motions and
some requests that have been made. We
have been told that they are before me and
on my desk and I am not working on
them. Meanwhile, there was nothing like
that before me and yet your Members go
rumbling around saying Mr Speaker is
not doing this or that, meanwhile, those
things you are complaining of are not
before the Speaker.
It is this morning that some of what you
complained of were brought to my desk,
in fact, to my Secretariat and my secretary
immediately drew my attention that what
Hon Members complained of yesterday
had then just arrived. She is now
processing them for them to come to me.
This is the problem and I hold you, Hon
Leaders, responsible because you are not
leading the Hon Members effectively and
you are not communicating well with the
Speaker. Many of these things that have
been raised here, if there had been that
good communication, that verification of
documents — the Standing Orders have given ample processes and procedures as
to how these things are done.
Many Hon Members, fortunately, I
should say, not unfortunately, we have a
lot of fresh blood in-House which is good
for the development of our democracy.
Therefore, they are not yet well tutored on
these things. You should lead them and I
do not see that Leadership, that is my
worry. That is a real worry to me. The
Committees have so much powers that
you could hold the Ministers to account.
The Speaker has enormous powers to
hold with your support, the Government
to account to the people.
When we talk about accountability, we
are not talking about financial account-
ability only. We have given them power;
we have given them authority; we have
given them trust and that trust is not just
that I trust you and that is why I am voting
for you to lead me. If you go through the
Constitution, trust in land, the President
holds the land, the minerals, so many
things in trust for Ghanaians. That trust,
we have to hold the President to account.
Business of the House
So, if we talk about Achimota forest and
other lands which H. E. the President is
holding in trust for the people of Ghana,
and if anyone thinks that trust is being
abused, that person has the power to hold
H. E. the President to account. I have been
worried about the Ga, Kumasi and
regional lands in general, but nothing is
happening. Families are petitioning and
complaining and I have been drawing
their attention to the fact that, if they are
petitioning through the Rt Hon Speaker,
then they are doing the wrong thing. They
should petition through Parliament
because it is a function of Parliament and
not of the Rt Hon Speaker. The families
need that leadership, but they are not
getting it and that is part of the termites
that are eating away the credibility of the
politicians. We have to work at it. So, all
the issues we raised are very important.
There is a levy on sanitation, the
moneys are being collected, and the Hon
Minister has been asked to come and
account for it, but the Hon Minister has
not shown up and Parliament cannot do
anything? That constitutes a serious
breach of our laws and, in fact, contempt
of Parliament. We can take them on. That
is why a Minister can be censured. The
Ministers are not just appointed by H. E.
the President; they are appointed by H. E.
the President with the approval of
Parliament. H. E. the President and Hon
Members of Parliament are the two key
persons elected by Ghanaians and the
hopes and aspirations of Ghanaians are
put in their hands.
Therefore, it is not only H. E. the
President, but Parliament also has that
power, and it can withdraw that approval
through censuring of the Ministers or
withdrawal of the approval by H. E. the
President through impeachment. The
people have given Parliament that power.
So, when Parliament does not exercise it
and joins the members of the general
public in complaining and rumour-
mongering, it is a complete disservice to
this nation. Please, I do not want to get to
this area again. Let us, as a House and as
individuals, perform our functions, duties
and responsibilities effectively. We can
only do that when we are enabled to do it.
There are some challenges with the law
— constitutional and statutory — we have to lead the way to work on them.
I am happy that H. E. the President has
now agreed that we should continue with
the constitutional reforms. Initially, he
was of the view that it is a complete re-
write of the Constitution, but I did not
support it. He wanted us to pick one or
two amendments to work on. We know
what happened to the area of
decentralisation. Decentralisation is an
area that we must work seriously on,
because what we have now is incomplete
and we have to work and complete it. I
Business of the House
was happy that they added that to the
portfolio of the Hon Minister for Local
Government, Decentralisation and Rural
Development. Unfortunately, I do not see
anything happening and we have to work
on it. The cardinal sin of this Parliament
is, Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lipke and Lolobi
(SALL), do not forget about it.
I expect that in spite of the celebration
of World Hygiene Day, we should have
more than the four women in the House.
The issue of hygiene and sanitation is not
only for women, but for all of us because
we are all part of it. Their numbers are not
encouraging and as a House, I insist and
want the Leaders to take this up; that at
whatever stage that the Affirmative
Action Bill is, please let us take it from
the Executive and work on it as a House.
It is our function to legislate and not that
of the Executive.
If there are constitutional problems, we
would draw their attention. I do not think
that the passage of the Affirmative Action
Bill offends any provision of the
Constitution; We will not legislate and
put financial provisions in the Act, and
that is why I agree with the interpretation
given by Prof Mike Oquaye Jnr and
allowed Hon Members to initiate Private
Members Bills.
Private Members Bills are of two types:
a Private Bill and a Private Member's Bill. The Government is mostly con-
cerned with Public Bills and that is why
the private sector is not well attended to.
There is a lot of work we have to do in
order to enable the private sector to
flourish because it is the private sector
that creates the wealth and leads the
growth of a country. The public sector
provides the machinery for them to
operate. So, please let us take our work
more seriously than we are doing.
I said in my re-opening remarks that this
year would be devoted to oversight and I
mean what I say. We have to do a lot of
work this year and next year so that by
2024, which is an election year, we would
not witness the things that we witnessed
in 2020.
Please, do not allow the mob consti-
tuents to lead you. If they could, they
would not have elected you to lead them.
So, Members of Parliament must lead
them and not join them. If Members of
Parliament are like them, they would not
have elected you to be their leaders. I am
surprised that the Hon Majority Chief
Whip said that the constituency and
regional elections are so far, peaceful.
The evidence is too much to counter that
position; the elections have not been
peaceful and I would not like to see that
in any political party. Is Members of the
same political party attacking one another
with cutlasses peaceful? Come on!
Business of the House
Please, I would direct the Clerk to
Parliament and the Table Office to write
to the Hon Ministers who have been
mentioned and remind them to appear
quickly before the House. They could
only do so when they are programmed by
the Business Committee, and that has to
be done, starting next week. They are
critical matters, particularly those dealing
with national security. I have had a
number of meetings with the Hon
Minister for National Security based on
letters that he has written to me about the
security situation of this country and
particularly, of this House. We are not in
normal times and all of us must take our
security seriously. Our security machinery
is broken down even in the House. When
I talked about the lack of budget, people
tried to counter me, but I know what I was
talking about. Please, let us be more
serious than we are.
I understand that some people may have
problems with us continuing with the
Business of the House. However, it is for
a good reason that I decided to crave your
indulgence for us to continue for today
even though from the onset, the numbers
were not encouraging. However, in the
national interest, we have to do this. So,
with your kind permission and
indulgence, I would take it that the
Business of the House presented is
adopted, subject to the comments that
have been made, and that the Business
Committee and the Clerks-at-the-Table
would take up the issues and
communicate officially to the relevant
Ministers and Ministries. We expect to
see a change in their attitude towards the
House. If not, the Rt Hon Speaker himself
would take up the mantle and the
unexpected would happen. With this, the
Business of the House is adopted
Any guidance from Hon Leaders?
Yes, Hon Majority Chief Whip?
