Adwoa Safo’s ‘sick’ demand: make me deputy majority leader …before I come to vote on e-levy

The Member of Parliament for the Dome‐Kwabenya constituency, Sarah Adwoa Safo, is reported to have expressed a desire to be announced publicly as the Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament in addition to her position as Minister for Children, Gender and Social Protection, else she is not returning to the country anytime soon despite the current situation of a hung Parliament where every Member’s presence is of a priceless importance during voting sessions.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) caucus in Parliament has had some two members absent since the House resumed from the Christmas break but one of them has given full assurances to be back in Ghana today Wednesday February 2 ahead of the voting on the controversial Electronic Transaction Levy this Thursday.

Sarah Adwoa Safo is however still cooling off outside the country and in no mood to return until her demands are met.

Meanwhile Speaker Bagbin is out of town, meaning the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei‐Owusu would have to sit in as Speaker.

With such a situation, the NPP cannot afford to miss even a single vote especially when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) side has accounted for all its 137 members.

In plain language, the pre‐condition for the return of Adwoa Safo ahead of the E‐Levy voting would require the current Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo‐Markin, to hand over the position to her, as though she were a spoilt little kid crying over the shoes of a neighbor’s child.

The New Publisher tried reaching Adwoa Safo to ask her what EXACTLY she is still doing outside Ghana at this crucial period in the history of her party and whether her reported demand were true but she would simply not pick her calls or even reply her messages.

The talks of her demand to be made Deputy Majority Leader, which some have described as a clear blackmail and twisting the arm of Akufo‐Addo’s Government, is  however a trending discussion along the corridors of power and among the NPP caucus in Parliament.

The DAYBREAK newspaper first broke the story on Tuesday causing quite an uproar with a report that Adwoa Safo would be taking over as Deputy Majority Leader and when The New Publisher did a follow up on the rather curious demand, the paper gathered that the request had reached the 4th Floor of the Jubilee House.

As to whether her supposed demands would be met and whether if met , would not become a precedent that would encourage other MPs to start stating the terms and conditions under which they would cooperate and work as a team, it would be known in a matter of days.

The NDC side of the House in this 8th Parliament of the Fourth Republic has consistently teased the NPP side of not having enough numbers when voting is about to be done and therefore resorting to all manner of delay gymnastics.

It makes it seem as though, the Majority Chief Whip, responsible for administering the whipping system that ensures that members of the party attend and vote in Parliament as the party leadership desires is ineffective.

Meanwhile this is far from the truth as the current Majority Chief Whip is

on top of his job and would have scored an outstanding pass mark if not for the habitual absenteeism of a particular Member and the continuous nature of it.

This same Sarah Adwoa Safo, reported to be making demands, has not really done much worth writing home about at the Gender Ministry.

She was absent from work for so long a time that there were public calls for her resignation.

Some of her major decisions at that Ministry had turned out to be counterproductive and generated public anger until they had to be reserved by a directive from the office of the President.

She later described her counterproductive decisions as Administrative errors…however she is still enjoying the tax payer’s money as salary for the position she occupies at that ministry.

 

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