… Hackman Owusu-Agyeman’s Response (Urgent Substantive Motion) To Speaker Annan’s December 9, 1998 Ruling On His “First Urgent Motion”
This is the concluding part of the 10th December, 1998 Parliamentary debate on Hackman Owusu-Agyeman’s response to Speaker Justice Annan’s decision not to admit his (Owusu-Agyeman’s) ‘first urgent motion’ on the 1996 $5m Abacha money to Mr. Rawlings. The first part was published in The New Crusading GUIDE of 25th July, 2016.
We shall soon play-back the entire proceedings of December 15,1998 which focused on the debate on the Speaker’s December 9,1998 Ruling, and which eventually resulted in a walk-out by the Minority and a defeat of Hackman Owusu-Agyeman’s ‘Second Urgent (Substantive) Motion’ asking the House (Parliament) to urge “the Right Hon. Speaker to review his decision not admit the urgent motion on the setting up of a Board of Enquiry to look into the allegation of improper payment to the President by the government of former Nigerian Head of State, General Sani Abacha …”
11. 45 a.m.
*Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, since this is a motion which seeks to challenge my ruling, I do not want to be in the unenviable position of having to determine when. That is why I have sought the views of the House on this matter: because it is my ruling that is being challenged. So I would ask the two leaders to come to a conclusion, to come to an agreement on when we can hear this matter. Minority Leader and Majority Leader to agree on a date.
*Mr. J.H. Mensah: Mr. Speaker, we are trying, in fact, to accommodate our friends opposite. We know that tomorrow most of them would be occupied with the party congress in Sekondi. So the opportunities available to us are either to debate the matter now, or to wait till next week. Now Mr. Speaker, in this decision the credibility and the future of Parliament are at stake. {interruptions.}Wait, let me explain. Mr. Speaker, I will explain to him the gravity of what we are doing, since he does not seem to appreciate it. Mr. Speaker, whether he likes it or not, the people of Ghana have been waiting for their Parliament to address itself to an issue of grave public importance, for a long time. Now, either Parliament would be seen to be doing its business, getting on with it, or Parliament would become irrelevant. Mr. Speaker, we do not also want to put you in the position of being responsible for gagging the Parliament from doing its business. We do not want this issue to be debated outside Parliament. We want it to be debated here in Parliament. And therefore we are urging our friends opposite to take a very careful look at what they are doing and the political implications. Mr. Speaker, if we do not debate the matter here now, it would be debated elsewhere; and that debate – {interruptions} – whether they like it or not – {interruption.}
*Mr. Speaker: Order, order!
*Mr. J.H. Mensah: Whether they like it or not, on the “Breakfast Show,” on radio this or on radio that, it is being debated. Whether they like it or not it is being debated and therefore the credibility of Parliament – {interruptions.} Mr. Speaker, I said whether they like it or not it is being debated. I hear there was a “Breakfast Show” discussion of it even today. So, Parliament must be seen to be getting on with this as well. Mr. Speaker, I am saying this, that we do not want this debate to move into an arena where the explanation for Parliament not doing its work is either that it has been imprisoned by the tyranny of numbers or gagged by the Speaker. Those are the two propositions that I want us to avoid – the tyranny of numbers or gagging by the Speaker. I am warning my friends opposite to think very seriously and carefully about this. We are all here in Parliament; we want to be seen to be doing our work. And our responsibility to the nation is to take cognizance, discuss and give guidance on any matter that affects this nation, especially as gravely as this matter does. Therefore I am appealing to our friends opposite, let us talk now here. Nobody is dumb; nobody is dumb today. We are all here. My hon. Friend has his tongue. Let us debate the matter now, not Tuesday.
*Mr. Owusu-Acheampong: I want to tell my hon. Colleague that nobody is afraid of any debate in this House. I also want to assure my hon. Colleague that we are responsible enough to know what we are doing as a party. Mr. Speaker, the matter before us now is that we should determine when this substantive motion challenging your ruling would be debated. That is the matter before us. It is as simple as that. This rumblings and going on and saying all sorts of things would not help this House. It would not help this House. We have to take a decision as to when we would debate this motion. Mr. Speaker, we are saying that Tuesday next week will be appropriate for the debate and therefore we want to take a decision now, that that debate takes place on Tuesday. If it is a question for the Whole House to determine – and I want to repeat it – if Mr. Speaker, wants the Whole House to determine when this debate should take place, it is for this House only to take that decision and that decision can be taken only by vote. Let us take the vote now and determine whether the debate would be on Tuesday or not.
*Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, I believe that the leaders have gone out to consult; so may we hear a few other positions.
*Mr. Speaker: Order, order! Well, now that the leaders are back may I know from them whether they have agreed on a date.
*Mr. Owusu-Acheampong: Mr. Speaker, we could not agree. Therefore, we have agreed that the decision must be taken by the Whole House now, as to whether the debate should be on Tuesday or now. Therefore we would crave your indulgence to put this matter to vote.
*Nana Akufo-Addo: Mr. Speaker, before you act on the proposal of the Majority Leader, my understanding of Order 78 is that the matters listed there (a) to (k) are all matters that allow you to have the matter brought up immediately. Assuming for instance it is a motion relating to contempt of Parliament, that is a matter that you can deal with immediately. All the matters that are there, are matters that call for immediate response. That is the whole purpose of the reason why a motion can be admitted without leave, once you agree that leave should be dispensed with. It means therefore, Mr. Speaker – and that is what I want to bring to your attention – that “urgent,” in the context of these rules means now. Urgent means immediate. Urgent means now. That, Mr. Speaker, is the true construction of Order 79.
*Mr. Franklin Aheto: On a point of order! Mr. Speaker, my point is that Mr. Speaker has just allowed the leaders of the House to confer; and they came back and Mr. Speaker has asked them – {interruptions.} – Please, can you stop talking and listen to wisdom. Mr. Speaker has asked them of the result of their consultation. The Majority Leader has given us the information that they have agreed that we take a vote now as to whether we should debate the issue now or next week Tuesday. I do not know why the hon. Member is dragging the House back.
11.55 a.m.
*Mr. Speaker: Hon. Member, once we have agreed to refer the matter to the House for a vote, a few voices ought to be heard before the vote is taken; and that is what I am trying to do; to hear a few voices before the vote is taken.
*Nana Akufo-Addo: Mr. Speaker, if indeed, the power to fix an urgent motion is your power, the proposal that the Majority Leader is making is in fact something that is diminishing your powers in this House. That if the matter is a matter that is within your prerogative, then it should stay within your prerogative. It should not be a matter which the House should determine. If it comes to that, then it amounts to saying that the House will have review powers over every single decision that you make, even if you are given the power by the Rules. The fixing of an urgent motion is a matter that the Rules have left within your prerogative. It is not a matter which has to be determined by the “Party Whips” on the floor of this House. They are to be determined by the exercise of your discretion. You may seek guidance from the House; you may seek advice of the House; but to be bound by a vote in this matter, my respectful submission, Mr. Speaker, is that an important power of yours is going to be whittled away.
We are required in the implementation of these orders to stick, not only to the letter, but also to the spirit. And the spirit says that it is for you to fix the hearing of an urgent motion and not the House as whole. Mr. Speaker, what is the reason for that? Once you are satisfied that the matter is an urgent matter, to have it thrown back into the laps of the House, or the Business Committee, means that whoever temporarily has the majority in this House is in a position to determine the programme of this House always; and that should not be the case, when the matter is an urgent matter.
*Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, let me make my position clear, I am prepared to agree that in an urgent motion the Speaker must decide or has a say in determining the date for the hearing of the motion. But what I have said is that in this particular motion, the urgent motion is to review my decision. So I find myself in an unenviable position, having to determine the date. That is why I referred it to the House. I am not abandoning whatever discretion I have in respect of urgent motions generally. But since my ruling is involved, I thought I should leave it to the House to determine when.
*Nana Akufo-Addo: Mr. Speaker, both here and in your other calling, the decision to review a decision of somebody in the Chair is a matter that Mr. Speaker, you are very familiar with, even from your other calling. There is no difficulty involved in having a decision of somebody chairing or presiding over a meeting reviewed and that person himself deciding when the review process should be initiated. {interruption.]
*Mr. Speaker: The other forum was a purely judicial forum.
*Nana Akufo-Addo: In a matter like this, you are acting in quasi-judicial capacity. Mr. Speaker, the reasons why I am making these submissions is this; Mr. Speaker, the whole area of what we are doing, we are in an unchartered area of our own Orders. For instance, to my knowledge, this is the first time, at least in this particular Meeting, the Second Meeting of Parliament, that you have formally made a ruling on the admissibility of a motion or otherwise. To my knowledge, this is the first time. So we are here in an area where the goal posts are not clear. We are in the process of constructing the goal posts and making sure that things are done in the right way. If we accept that this House, by the vote of the Majority, will have a claim on your discretion, we are going a long way to undermining your own powers under our Standing Orders. {interruptions.}
*Mr. Speaker: Thank you, hon. Member. Hon. Sowu may speak.
*Nana Akufo-Addo: If I may just conclude.
*Mr. Speaker: There are others who want to be heard. Hon. Sowu.
*Sqn. Ldr. (rtd.) Sowu: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I heard the hon. Majority Leader speak, he graciously admitted that maybe tomorrow, we on this side would be engaged at our national congress. He further said – {interruption.} Will you kindly listen to me please. He also went on to say that if we did not debate the issue now, it would be debated somewhere else. Mr. Speaker, one would like to add this dimension, that each and everyone of us in this House was elected not to come and say what he thinks is the best way but what he thinks the people who voted for him want to be said. So Mr. Speaker, if the question is that the thing will be debated somewhere, it will advise us even better if we come to debate the issue substantially.
So if the Majority Leader has said that all right, Tuesday is a good day to debate, between now and Tuesday, we would have heard many people, our constituents say what they want to say, because we are not supposed to come and stand up in this House and then decide to say what we dreamt about or what we personally think; rather it should be what the whole nation is talking about, just as we did for the marriage of girls of sixteen. We all stood up in this House to say that for once we had listened to what people were saying. Let people debate it anywhere, but we will debate it ourselves and we shall be more informed by the debate that goes on outside. So if the Majority say we will have the debate on Tuesday, let us have it on Tuesday.
*Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, it does not look as if we are going to reach a consensus on this matter. And I have said that because it is my ruling that is being challenged, I do not want to fix a date for that ruling; I might fix a date a year from now. So, I will leave it to the House, as we have agreed, to determine the matter as to when.
I had hoped that we could have agreed, since I have admitted it as an urgent motion. But today is Thursday, tomorrow is Friday; the next sitting day is Tuesday. So it is between these three days. I am afraid I am not hearing any more submissions on this matter. {interruptions.} You have no priority on the issue of when. Your motion has been admitted as an urgent motion.
*Mr. Hackman Owusu-Agyemang – rose-
*Mr. Speaker: Your motion has been admitted as an urgent motion. That is as far as your interest goes. What remains now is to fix a date for the hearing; and that is a matter for the House or for the Leadership.
*Mr. Owusu-Agyemang: Since I said it is urgent, should not I have a say on why I think it is urgent?
*Mr. Speaker: No. Either we agree on a date, or we vote for a date; these are the two issues. If we cannot agree on a date, then we vote.
12.05 p.m.
*Mr. J.H. Mensah: Mr. Speaker, in most dictionaries ‘urgent’ would be taken to imply ‘now’. You have ruled that you will accept this motion as an urgent motion. So, it follows that unless there are very important reasons not to do it now, then we should do it now; and that is what “urgent” means. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Friend opposite is trying to marshal his “crowd” but he should listen to the argument also. Mr. Speaker, I think that in the present circumstances I would invite my hon. Friend opposite to move for the debate to be held on Tuesday. I will move an amendment that it be held now; and then we would vote on the motion and the amendment. That will clarify that matter.
*Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, I will now take a motion for a date, for the urgent motion to be heard. Majority Leader, do you so move?
*Mr. J.H. Owusu-Acheampong: Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, That the substantive motion, by hon. Hackman Owusu-Agyemang of New Juaben North, the text of which we are not aware of and which should have been programmed by the Business Committee, which we are compelled not to take a decision on, be properly programmed by the Business Committee to be debated on Tuesday. {interruptions.}
*Mr. Hackman Owusu-Agyemang – rose –
*Mr. Speaker: Order, order. A motion is being moved, you cannot correct him. No, you cannot correct him now. He is moving a motion, no, you cannot correct him. Let him move his motion the way he wants to. {interruptions.}
*Mr. Owusu-Acheampong: Mr. Speaker, that the motion should be programmed by the Business Committee and debated on the floor of the House on Tuesday, 15th December, 1998.
*Sqn. Ldr. (rtd.) Sowu: Mr. Speaker, I beg to second the motion of the Majority Leader {interruptions.}
*Mr. J.H. Mensah: Mr. Speaker, I think that all the surplus words about the Business Committee and so on be taken out because it is a contradiction. {interruptions.} If this House decides, then all the business about Business Committee is totally irrelevant. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I am going to move an amendment to the motion that is relevant. That is, instead of ‘Tuesday’ delete ‘Tuesday’ and substitute ‘now’. {uproar.} Mr. Speaker, I beg to move.
*Mr. Speaker: There is an amendment motion. Seconded?
*Mr. Hackman Owusu-Agyemang: Mr. Speaker, in view of the fact that next week we have the Appropriations Bill to consider – {interruptions.}
*Mr. Speaker: Hon. Owusu-Agyemang is on the floor seconding the amendment motion.
*Mr. Owusu-Agyemang: Mr. Speaker, in view of the fact that next week we shall have the Provisional Estimates to consider, the Value Added Tax (VAT) Regulation, the Children’s Bill, Revenue Agencies Bill and all the things that we have to consider and in view of the urgency of the matter, and considering the fact that the Business Committee is your Committee, it is not a committee that belongs to – it is your Committee, Mr. Speaker, in view of this I second the motion that the debate on the alleged $5 million pay-out to the President in this substantive motion be discussed here and now.
Question proposed.
*Mr. Owusu-Acheampong: Mr. Speaker, our reason for the motion is that we do not have the text of this motion. We cannot debate in a vacuum without having any clues as to what the substantive motion is about. We cannot debate it. We cannot take it now. That is our reason – Is that not so, my brothers? {Some hon. Members: Yes.} Our only reason is that the debate must be postponed till Tuesday. {interruptions.}
*Mr. Speaker: Order, order. Minority Leader, to speak to the amendment.
*Mr. J.H. Mensah: Mr. Speaker, if we may briefly comment on the motion and speak for my own amendment. First of all the substantive motion by my hon. Friend opposite, I think that Mr. Speaker, that motion, a motion of procrastination, a motion of avoiding the issues, is not going to do Parliament any good. Mr. Speaker, normally. {interruptions.}
*Mr. Speaker: Order, order!
12. 15 p.m.
*Mr. J.H. Mensah: Mr. Speaker, as a bit of an unruly classroom, normally we would have suggested tomorrow which would have been reasonable but I know that most of my hon. Friends opposite will be engaged in their party business and we do not want to deny them their party business. So the choice was really either to act now, act expeditiously, act responsibly or wait a whole five days. Mr. Speaker, that is what the motion is saying, that is what the motion is saying, that we should wait another five days.
Mr. Speaker, this is a very serious proposition and my hon. Friend is summoning his crowds as usual but whether they vote or not, to wait another five days on this matter is a disservice to Parliament and to the nation of Ghana and to the President himself. If he had taken steps expeditiously to deal with this matter, we would not have been in this situation but to wait for another five days seems to me not acceptable, advisable or wise. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I move that the Question on the amendment be put now.
*Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, let us deal with this very quickly.
*Minister of Environment, Science and Technology (Mr. Cletus Avoka): Mr. Speaker, in trying to support the motion moved by the Majority Leader, I just want to submit humbly that our friends on the other side should stop playing to the gallery as far as this issue is concerned – {interruption} – Mr. Speaker, this is a very, very important matter. We should not overstretch the provisions of Standing Order 78 which we have referred to. If you look at the provisions of Order 78 and what we are supposed to debate today, they are so different that what the Majority Leader has decided should be looked upon. Mr. Speaker, I am saying so against this background. If I refer my hon. Colleagues to the provisions of the Order, where no notice is needed – {interruption.}
*Mr. Speaker: Hon. Minister, we have agreed to take a vote on the mater.
*Mr. Avoka: Mr. Speaker, I am just saying that – {interruption.}
*Mr. Speaker: Order, order! Hon. Minister is on the floor.
*Mr. Avoka: Mr. Speaker, I will be very very brief; just two minutes. I am saying that the motion they want us to debate today involves two countries, Ghana and Nigeria. It involves two Presidents, the late President Abacha and our honourable President.
This is a very important matter that we on this side, or in fact all of us in this House must see the context of the motion before we can debate reasonably. Mr. Speaker, you cannot compare that debate, the debate that infringes upon the integrity of a former Head of State and a current Head of State to the issue of asking or moving a motion that this House should adjourn. That is very simple and straight-forward as provided here.
Mr. Speaker, it is also as important as moving that a matter that is before this House be referred to a particular committee. These are very simple and straightforward matters that Order 78 provides for as against discussing or debating the integrity of the Head of State. I think it is such an important matter that we should all be notified or we should all have time, at least two days’ time to be able to debate. I do not know what they fear. Mr. Speaker, this motion has been standing for about two, three weeks now and nobody is dead. I do not know what they fear if this motion is going to be taken on Tuesday. If they want fair debate, if they want adequate response and they want the whole country to be involved, we should take it up on Tuesday.
*Mr. Speaker: Thank you, hon. Minister. May I remind the House that we are not debating issues of integrity as at this point in time or about character or corruption or whatever. We are simply debating the issue before us, whether the Speaker was right or wrong in refusing to admit the motion. I have ruled and they have appealed to the House, and they have every right to appeal to the House and the simple issue now is when do we determine whether the Speaker was right or wrong? When do we do it? It is as simple as that. They say Tuesday, you say now. So why do I not put the Question? Papa Owusu-Ankomah?
*Papa Owusu-Ankomah: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you will realize that – {interruption.}
*Mr. C.K. Asante: On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, it appears we are doubting our own integrity in this House {An hon. Member: You and who?} All of us. Mr. Speaker, it is in our Standing Orders that when the Speaker is speaking, every Member should sit down and even if somebody is contributing or debating, everybody should sit down. Mr. Speaker, what is happening in this House now is this, that when somebody stands up to talk, those people at that side of the House – {interruptions} – Mr. Speaker, it is a clear manifestation of what I am saying – {interruption.}
*Mr. Speaker: Order, order! Hon. Asante, you may not refer to “those people over there, those people over there”. They are the Minority. Would you refer to them as the Minority. They are not “those people over there”, they are the Minority.
*Mr. Asante: Mr. Speaker, I take your advice, I say hon. Members. Hon. Members, if we do not take care – {Some hon. Members: withdraw, withdraw.}
12. 25 p.m.
*Papa Owusu-Ankomah: Mr. Speaker, I was on the floor. The hon. Member has not raised any point of order. He is totally out of order. {uproar.} Mr. Speaker, he has not said anything. I am on the floor – {uproar.}
*Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, may I put the Question now? I will accordingly put the Question and the Question is, That the substantive motion for the review of the ruling of the Speaker in the matter of the urgent motion filed by hon. H. Owusu-Agyemang be heard on Tuesday next.
That is the substantive motion. I am reading the motions. The amendment motion read as follows: “That the substantive motion for the review of the ruling of the Speaker on the matter of the urgent motion filed by hon. H. Owusu-Agyemang be heard now”. By our practice, the amendment is put first. If the amendment is carried then that is the end of the matter. So now I put the Question on the amendment first.
Question put and amendment negatived.
*Mr. J.H. Mensah: Mr. Speaker, in accordance with the practice of this House, we would ask you to give us the privilege of having your decision confirmed by headcount. Thank you very much.
*Mr. Speaker: In the circumstances I agree that the vote be taken by a count and therefore all in favour of the amendment motion will stand up to be counted.
Question put and the House was counted.
AYES - 54
NOES - 78
*Mr. Speaker: Order, order! That still leaves us with the substantive motion. Hon. Members, we still have the substantive motion to contend with. So I would put the Question on the substantive motion, and the substantive motion is that the motion to review the ruling of the Speaker be heard on Tuesday next.
12.35 p.m.
Question put and the House was counted.
AYES - 78
NOES - 55
*Mr. Owusu-Acheampong: Mr. Speaker, we would ask for a recount on their side. They had 54 in the first voting; now they have 55, we want a recount.
*Mrs. Gladys Asmah: Mr. Speaker, I just want to remind my hon. Colleague opposite that just as he summoned the Ministers to come in, we summoned our people also to come in.
*Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, in terms of the decision of the House, this matter is to be put on the Order Paper for Tuesday next to be heard. Majority Leader, would you give an idea of what business we can take now?
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