Speaker Takes Over As President of Ghana

Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho, would be

sworn-in today as acting president as President John

Dramani Mahama leads a delegation of some African

Heads of State to mediate in the political stand-off in

neighbouring Burkina Faso.

Communication to that effect was read to Members

of Parliament MPs yesterday as they (MPs) resumed

their third meeting of the second session of the sixth

parliament after a long recess.

The speaker will be acting in the absence of the vice

president, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, who is also on

an official visit to India.

The announcement of President Mahama’s absence

from the country elicited some boos from the

Minority New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs and sharp

criticisms from the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-

Mensah-Bonsu, who said the president’s travels

outside the country were becoming too much.

He maintained that it was important for the

president to spend some time to help resolve the

current impasse between the government and some

members of the public and the civil service sector

workers who are on strike over their tier-two

pension funds before the economy gets completely

crippled by the strike action.

“The president must know that his own backyard is

boiling and must dedicate some time to resolve this

serious impasse,” he charged.

The Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin, however thought

the president’s visit to Burkina Faso was very crucial,

especially when he (president) is the current

Chairman of the Economic Community of West

African States (ECOWAS) and moreover, Burkina Faso

is Ghana’s next-door neighbour with the implications

of the political stand-off being dire for the country if

the situation degenerates.

Meanwhile, in his opening remarks at the beginning

of the new meeting of the MPs, the Majority Leader,

who is also referred to as the Leader of the House,

was blunt to remind Members that they were in

parliament to represent their constituents and

therefore must at all times consult their people on

their needs to enable them champion those causes.

“Very soon the government will be presenting its

budget for the 2014/2015 financial year and I will

like all MPs to consult with their constituents before

making contributions on it in parliament,” Mr. Alban

Bagbin urged.

According to the Majority Leader, more time would

be given for MPs to critically scrutinise the budget in order for parliament to rediscover its past glory.

He also made it known that a bill on new standing

orders for parliament would be placed in the House

during this session and expressed the hope that when the new bill was passed, the work of parliamentarians

would be more effective.

The Speaker, Mr. Doe Adjaho, acknowledged that the third meeting of the second session would be very hectic because of the consideration of the

government’s financial policy and budget for the

ensuing year and therefore called on MPs to be

punctual and cooperate with the leadership in order

to exhaust all the agenda for their current meeting.

As part of yesterday’s proceedings, a question as to

whether the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum was

aware of the adulteration of fuel by the marketing

companies was posed.

A deputy minister of Energy, John Jinapor, who

answered the question posed by the MP for

Ablekuma North, Joe Appiah, said his outfit was very much aware and was seriously putting in place

measures to crack down on those miscreants in the

society.