Seasoned Journalist, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, has blamed leadership of the Majority in Parliament for the Minority's behavior in Parliament on Friday, November 26, 2021 regarding the purported "rejection" of the 2022 budget statement and Economic Policy.
It could be recalled that the Majority staged a walkout from Parliament while voting was about to take place on the budget, hence resulting in only the Minority voting, thereby rejecting it.
However, the budget has been approved by the Majority after they reconvened in Parliament on Tuesday, November 30, with the 1st Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu (Joewise), sitting in for the Speaker who is on a medical leave.
The "approval" of the budget comes after the Minority's vote was said to be unconstitutional as it breached the standing orders of Parliament which indicates that voting could be held when there is a majority, with at least half of all the members in Parliament; meaning the Minority voting on the budget didn't hold.
Reacting to this Parliamentary hubbub, Kweku Baako says the Majority leadership caused Friday's mess in Parliament.
''The beginning of all this mess, I blame the Majority leadership in Parliament and even to some extent the Executive. Timelines, timetable for presentation of the budget was known to all of them. They also knew how long the debate would take and when the vote would take place," he said.
He asked; ''Where was the full compliment of their numbers in Parliament?''
According to him, the Majority could have avoided the unpleasant incident if they had been proactive.
"Such an important document that they knew it would be subject to vote, especially the signals began at one stage that they, the Minority, will decide to play hard ball. It wasn't going to look like the normal one, the 2017 budget, 2018 budget, 2019 budget. Certain things had been hyped giving signals that you don't continue to think that, 'oh, some good will be generated and that voice vote will just carry everything along, then the 'ayes' have it.' You prepare! You anticipate, especially when the signals came up!! Get all your members back to the jurisdiction and you see how they quickly organized them back in quote unquote an emergency form."
He concluded that the Majority leadership wasn't sharp and smart in respect of this particular issue.
''This controversy would not have happened. So please, it's clear in my mind that there was a certain element of leadership failure on the part of the Majority in terms of their strategy, their tactics and the awareness and it must be said...This particular specific case, I think they were not sharp. They weren't smart; this is what created all this mess. Otherwise they would have had the budget passed (on Friday)," he exclaimed.
Kweku Baako made these submissions during Wednesday's edition of Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo''.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
@gbabri, as rightly said Kuffuor would use his grey hair to work behind the scene. Panyin wo fie
Well said, what we are witnessing in parliament would never had happened if the NPP leadership had listened to wise counsel. The fact is how come a party in opposition with limited resources still managed to secure majority of seats in the 2016 elections. The NPP never bought campaign vehicles in 2016, it was ordinary supporters who volunteered their vehicles to campaign for the party.I know of NPP MP's who didn't even own a motorcycle yet won in 2016. Now come 2020 having been in power for 4 solid years with all the resources at its disposal the same NPP MP's lost some considerable number of seats to the extent that they are now at par with the NDC, ie 137/137 but the the independent member for fomena who decided to go with the NPP. If one listened to what Akuffo Addo said about this MP ie 'on nye NPP papa, wu he NPP papa wun ko gina independent '. If the fomena MP wanted he would have joined the NDC in parliament and things would have been worse. Again the insistence of the president that he prefers Mike Ocquaye against the wishes of the NPP MP's is what is causing all this, Bagbin wouldn't have been the speaker but for some NPP votes he got. These happening are lessons for the NPP going into the future. Any president should know that all his MP's voted for him, he didn't vote for all his MP's to win their seats. The arrogant, empty pride and disrespectful small boy MP's who were full of themselves thus their defeat in 2020 is NPP's bane today. I pity the NPP under Akuffo Addo. Under president Kufuor this will not happen. He would used his grey hair to work behind the scenes to get over this matter. We miss Kufuor too much.
Kweku Baako, I agree with you. The majority leadership were not SMART