Minority New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament (MPs) yesterday forced Parliament to be prematurely adjourned for lack of quorum and demanded beds and mattresses.
The Speaker, Edward Doe Adjaho, used his authority to desperately hold on for ‘Votes and Proceedings’ and the business statement for next week to be quickly read before succumbing to the Minority’s pressure to adjourn yesterday’s proceedings till next Tuesday.
Majority of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs were absent obviously because of their primaries today, compelling the MP for Nkoranza North, Major Derek Oduro (rtd), to draw the speaker’s attention to lack of quorum as spelt out in Standing Order 48(2) of the House.
After the business statement had been read by the Majority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, K.T. Hammond, MP for Adansi/Asokwa, asked the leadership of the House to make arrangements so that MPs would be provided with beds, mattresses, pillows and blankets to enable them have a good sleep in Parliament when they come to work.
“We have heard somewhere that some MPs come to Parliament and sleep so Mr Speaker, I will plead with you to make the arrangement for us to get the beds and mattresses alongside our offices for us to take a better nap in Parliament because we are now tired of sleeping on our desks,” he requested.
T. Hammond’s request was in apparent reference to a statement made by President Mahama in Ho, the Volta Regional capital, to the effect that if the Minority MPs are accusing his government of taking more loans, then they must be sleeping in Parliament since all loans are approved by MPs. The MP for Manso-Adubia, Yaw Frimpong Addo, told Daily Guide that he was surprised by the comments made by the president.
According to him, he (president) had been an MP for 12 years and should have known better as to what happens in Parliament when it comes to approval of loans.
“Not all loans come to Parliament and when loans come to Parliament there is some level of cooperation before the loans are approved,” he said, stressing that by inference, the president was also saying that as an MP for Bole then, he also slept in Parliament as an opposition member.
The Deputy Minority Leader, Dominic Nitiwul, also told Daily Guide that the president was only trying to be mischievous because he had also been an MP before.
“The president should have known that about 50 percent of loans contracted by this government did not come to Parliament. The government went to the domestic market to raise domestic bonds and treasury bills in addition to borrowing from the Bank of Ghana; and all these loans are not approved by Parliament,” the deputy minority leader said, adding that the president had been exposed as not being truthful when it comes to the issue of loans.
Mr Nitiwul pointed out that the president must admit that his government has choked the nation with unprecedented rate of borrowing, with the country’s debt ballooning from GH¢¢9.5 billion when the NDC took over power in 2009 to over GH¢92 billion as of now.
He said the Minority did not approve some loans such as STX and the Chinese loan from the China Development Bank when they were put before Parliament
In another development, Members of Parliament will start debating the 2016 budget statement on Wednesday, November 25, with the MP for Bekwai, Joseph Osei-Owusu, calling for more time to be allotted to MPs in the debate.
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