Chaos In Parliament On 30th Anniversary?

Two days ago, Parliament celebrated 30 years of parliamentary democracy and prided itself on maturity.

A day later, the deputy speaker, Hon. Joe Wise, was nearly attacked in the chamber of parliament by four NDC MPs as he stepped in for the Speaker.

Of note is the awful behaviour of Murtala Mohammed, (Tamale North MP); Edward Bawa , MP for Bongo; MP for Bole Bamboi; MP for Ashaiman; and Richard Defiamakpor.

These MPs crossed the mace , an action which disrespects an important house rule, aside from their threat to harm the first Deputy Speaker and intimidate the visiting executives of the National Identification Authority.

This is the second time this has happened to the Hon. Joe Wise. At this point, the Marshalls were called in to prevent further violence and the house from experiencing further disgrace.

What had caused this raucous? Ostensibly, the House had called for a Committee of the Whole with attendance by the NIA, the Electoral Commission and the Minister for Finance for assurances about the readiness of these institutions to issue all eligible voters with their national identification cards in time for the 2024 elections.

In the beginning, the debate had been a reasonably healthy one until Ato Forson, minority leader, began to agitate his side of the house by insisting that absence of the Chairperson of the EC showed disrespect to the House.

This was a completely needless confrontation since Parliament’s letter of invitation was to the institution of the EC and not to the Chairperson.

It was needless also because the Deputy Chair for Operations was in the House to represent the EC as the Chairperson was representing the AU in Abuja for the Nigerian Elections this weekend. The composure of the House disintegrated thereafter and the matter at hand was postponed.

Was it the Minority Leader’s intention to render Parliament ungovernable? What purpose could postponement serve but cause disruptions in preparations towards the 2024 elections and cost Ghana more in the end? What about all the other bills which got postponed because of this farcical drama in parliament? There are time constraints which would thwart the passage of the constitutional instruments needed by the EC and this seems to be the goal of the NDC in parliament; to frustrate the EC and cost the country more and more money.

Similar manufactured agitations of Parliament and postponements in approving the 2022 budget resources led to down grades by the Rating Agencies which in turn led to the compounding of Ghana’s woes with its debtors.

There are currently three revenue bills in Parliament which are also being delayed and may lead to Ghana missing the all important IMF board meeting in March to secure the needed resources to emerge from the economic crisis.

What will the NDC’s refusal to cooperate in parliament under Ato Forson’s leadership cost Ghanaians this time?