Build consensus to fight our common enemy

The recent contention between the Minority and Majority sides in Parliament over the 2022 Budget should serve as a brilliant reminder, especially to the Majority side, that a new paradigm of leadership tilted towards consensus building is long overdue.

It cannot maintain the same old style of ‘let the Minority have it’s say for the Majority to have its way’; this bluff of a leadership style cannot work in a hung parliament that is evenly split at 137 apiece with an Independent Member who has opted to sit with one group.

The New Publisher is not asking the Majority to allow the group to be cowed into docility by the dictates of the Minority.  This cannot be because the Majority side that formed the Government has a clear direction it wants to go and has excellent reasons it wants to go that direction.

All the paper is saying is that despite the direction Government wants to go, behind the scene talks, pre-Chamber negotiations, effective lobbying at the Committee levels and ensuring everyone or at least leadership from both sides has a clear understanding of what is being done would enhance cooperation and better results.

The paper believes the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, after over two decades in Parliament, should be in a good position to understand this crucial need. He sometimes comes across as being overly loquacious, near-litigious and seemingly snobbish if not egoistic.

We entirely associate ourselves with the call by former Member of Parliament for Suhum and a former Minority Chief Whip that “leadership inside Parliament and in Government need to create back channels to properly and seriously engage the Minority caucus and their Party leadership about the concerns that has been raised about the budget even as the Parliamentary process to overturn the Speaker’s ruling gets underway”, as well as other matters of mutual concern.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) still has some three years to govern and would continue to rely on this hung Parliament. A continuous standoff would be counterproductive.

Imagine for a moment that the misunderstanding and avoidable entrenched positions both sides adopted over the Budget, was on another more critical subject matter that bothers on the security of the country.

Could Ghana have afforded the luxury of waiting for a full weekend plus an additional working day before Parliament resumes for members to set aside their egos and reach some compromises in the interest of the country?

The Majority Leadership, perhaps, needs to be reminded that building consensus with an opposing side is not a sign of weakness; it does not mean one has sold a birth right or lost some dignity. It is a sign of mature leadership.

We are of the view that the Majority and Minority are not enemies. They are, we believe, partners in fighting a common enemy facing a country of which they are all working for.

Building consensus to fight the common enemy of poverty, economic hardship and unemployment should be the way to go rather than this “I know my right” type of approach.

 

Written by HALIFAX ANSAH-ADDO