According to him, this practice which has occurred over the years in the House does not allow for quality and in-depth debate on issues raised in the budget.

[contextly_sidebar id=”bL6TSh51NOfOuHAHqqu8cCCHrIGrsUu5″]The Chairpersons and Ranking members of selected committees and leaders of the house, are expected to pitch camp from later on Friday through to Monday in Koforidua, to dissect the 2018 budget.

But according to Haruna Iddrisu, the absence of many of their colleagues at this crucial workshop is not the best.

“The Ministry of Finance post budget workshop  must be for every elected Member of Parliament, and not selected. All Members of Parliament, and that is why I am saying Mr. Speaker; let it be our collective decision today that going forward, that anytime the Minister will come, one week before it, he must have made sufficient preparations with the clerk and the Speaker that he has sufficiently provided for every member to attend the post budget workshop.

“It should not be the case that we are selecting leaders, Chairmen, Vice Chairmen, Ranking and others. It is not proper, and it is not acceptable. That is why I said that it has happened. I am defining a new position of a paradigm shift today. I hear in the past, sometimes this chamber was used for some of these purposes, but what we are saying is that, the leader and the Speaker should not have budgetary constraints. It is a principle because most of our colleagues all need to experience the resourcefulness of the debate, the gaps, the issues.”

Supply copies of  2018 budget for MPs – Speaker to Whips 

Meanwhile, the Speaker has directed the Whips in Parliament to ensure there are sufficient copies of the 2018 budget for members.

This follows concerns from the Minority that members are yet to receive copies days after the budget statement was presented to the house by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta.

“I respectfully direct that the First Deputy Speaker should ensure between the press assembly and the Ministry of Finance and the administration here in Parliament that by 2:00 o’clock, every member should have a copy. We all know the business of this house. It is also the duty, in all sincerity of the opposition to constructively oppose and also scrutinize.”

“The first 40 copies should be given to the members on my left, and for that matter I charge the whips to ensure that their members have sufficient copies. I will be right in my office to follow this to its logical conclusion. It is very important for our good otherwise there will be no point in scheduling our meeting for Koforidua tomorrow. We shall be using public funds to go there, only not to have our documents ready. Then we are not serving our people.”

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By: Marian Ansah & Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to him, the Minority’s accusation was disrespectful and unfair.

[contextly_sidebar id=”fpDKqSwL458rHLqdErfUdyMmdrm1QZed”]The Chamber of Parliament was thrown into a state of near chaos when Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu protested over what he suggested was a deliberate attempt by the Speaker, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye to prevent his side from thoroughly probing government’s ‘Planting for food and jobs’ programme.

The Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak in an interview with Citi News, described as unfortunately the reaction of the minority on the floor of the house but he said it was necessary because the Speaker had refused to afford them the opportunity to voice out their concerns.

“It is out of frustration…. the Minority, we have lost all the opportunity to vent our frustration so we have to, unfortunately, burst in anger which may not be called for but our patient us running out.”

“We in the Minority are really disappointed in the manner in which the speaker has been handling affairs in the how since his appointment…. Since this speaker came, we’ve been treated with a lot of disrespect,” he added.

But speaking on Eyewitness News on Thursday, Matthew Nyindam, who is the Member of Parliament for Nyindam constituency said he was shocked at the minority’s reaction.

“I am calling on them to render an unqualified apology to the speaker because we don’t see what the speaker has done wrong,” he said.

Muntaka Mubarak in an earlier interview with Citi News threatened that the minority will “advice itself” if the Speaker does not change his ways.

He continued that “We the minority, we have more than one-third of the house and he knows the implication of that.”

Reports suggested the minority had already started collecting signatures for the speaker’s impeachment but Mr. Nyindam said that minority was “embarking on a fruitless journey.”

“The minority is just embarking on a fruitless journey. I am so disappointed in the minority. The minority are capitalizing on the leniency of the speaker. I can tell you that this is the friendliest speaker I’ve ever seen. During Doe Adjaho’s term, some of the things that this speaker will allow, Doe Adjaho will never allow.”

In a related development the Majority leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu has alleged that the former Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho is manipulating members of the Minority to take certain decisions that do not inure to the benefit of the country.

According to him, the former speaker among his instructions to the minority was one to kick against the presence of the press in yesterday’s engagement with the Electoral Commissioner, Charlotte Osei.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Minority must apologize to Oquaye – Matthew Nyindam appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

“It is better to build the youth than to mend the men of old,” Mr Ernest Norgbey, Member of Parliament (MP) of Ashaiman said in a statement on the floor.

He said the initiation of the youth into alcohol through parental influence and the larger society could be controlled by the schools, religious organisations and the society as a whole.

“As legislators, it is imperative that we do something about the most common and biggest medium; Advertisements. Hundreds of advertisements on alcoholic beverages are aired on radio and television daily. And as if that is not enough, they are displayed on huge billboards as well as small ones. The alcohol industry is conscious of the power of advertisements so they waste no time in investing heavily in…. illicit alcohol,” he said.

He pointed out that alcohol advertisement was one cause of youth drinking, and that consumers took alcoholic beverages for reasons such as; socialisation, relaxation and peer pressure and it could be concluded that advertisement had the power to influence consumption patterns.

Mr Norgbey pointed out the use of celebrities who appealed to the youth in commercials to lure them into drinking, adding that children also watched and listened to the commercials, and that predisposed the nation to a catastrophe in the future.

Mr Norgbey urged fellow legislators to help apply the laws of the nation to discourage the use and abuse of alcohol among the youth, citing that in the United States of America, the legal drinking age is 21 years, adding “hence we can do something about the legal drinking age.”

He called on the National Media Commission and the Foods and Drugs Authority to impose sanctions and deal adequately with culprits who disregarded the law.

Summing up contributions on the issue, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye , the Speaker of Parliament, condemned the situation where some politicians allowed minors who had not attained the legal voting age and inferred that, thinking that they were of age may start taking alcohol to show that they were adults.

“If they start from the voters’ register, the end is alcohol consumption,” the Speaker cautioned, adding that “ let’s consider it at the Committee levels and bring it back for more discussion.”

In a contribution to the statement, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, MP for Ledzokuku, who is also a physician, noted that 80 per cent of liver diseases in Ghana were related to alcohol, and stressed that the nation had to be aggressive in getting the youth away from alcohol.

He said there was the need to draw a balance between the business and health aspects of the alcohol industry, stating that at most, one could take not in excess of 20 units of alcohol in a week.

Deputy Majority Leader Adwoa Safo and her counterpart James Avedzi who spoke on the use of alcohol, warned against its contribution to the loss of limbs, sexual escapades leading to unprepared parenthood and other social challenges.

Ms Safo called for a law, as Washington DC did for the youth to exhibit a form of documentation that showed they were matured before alcohol was sold to them.

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Source: GNA

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