A deputy Minister of Information and Media Relations, Murtala Mohammed Ibrahim, who is the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Nanton, was shamed by the minority in parliament for using a �militant and unparliamentary� language on the floor of the house after his NDC colleague had made a statement on the floor calling on the government to do something urgent about high rent charges in the country, especially in the urban areas.
In a contribution to the statement made by the NDC MP for Wa East, Salifu Ameen, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Nsawam/Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, asked the NDC government not to re-invent the wheel and play politics with the huge housing deficit in the country, which is the cause of such �unrealistic� rent charges, by completing the affordable housing projects started by the previous NPP government.
The MP for Nsawam/Adoagyiri�s comment stirred up emotions from the majority side prompting the deputy minister to stand up on a point of order and when he was given the permission by the Speaker, he asked the Nsawam/Adoagyiri to stay focus on the subject matter and not to make any �all die be die� comment on the statement.
Murtala�s comment also drew huge emotions from the minority side who asked him to retract his comment but the first deputy speaker, Ebo Barton-Odro, who was in the speaker�s chair, reaffirmed the deputy minister�s concern and asked Mr Annoh-Dompreh to stay focus.
The minority booed the ruling of the speaker and insisted that the deputy minister retracted his �all die be die� comment before the speaker asked him to do so.
As soon as he retracted his comment and apologised, the minority members booed at him saying �shame�, �shame�, �shame�.
The Nsawam/Adoagyiri MP told the Daily Guide that he was surprised that the speaker asked him to stay focus because he was commenting on a portion of the NDC member�s statement which indicated that there was the need for all stakeholders to join forces in a concerted effort to tackle the huge housing deficit of the country by making every effort to complete all housing projects on the drawing board while taking steps to commence new ones for the military, police and public servants.
The maker of the statement, Salifu Ameen, had also called for a reconsideration and a review of the recent 35 per cent increase in the price of cement to a �reasonable� level. He added that tax on materials purchased locally to build houses should be exempted from being taxed while members of the Ghana Real Estate Developers (GREDA) should also be exempted from tax when they were importing materials and machinery for the affordable housing projects.
In a contribution, the NPP Member for Dormaa Central, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said the only solution to curb these unreasonable rent charges was for the government to put huge taxes on rent above certain level, which is deemed �reasonable�
�Mr Speaker, some landlords can charge as much as $1 million for a flat and the government can impose huge taxes on these high rent charges to either raise money for some housing projects or discourage such practices,� he said.
The minority leader said in every year, the country churned out 30,000 housing deficit and that currently the country is in a housing deficit of 1.6 million
He said the situation was worrisome because income generally was low in the country while 70 per cent was spent alone on food so people could not have money to save and build their own houses and, therefore, the government must do something seriously about that.
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