Minority Condemns Ministers Absenteeism

The continuous absence of Ministers of State to appear before Parliament to respond to questions from lawmakers has infuriated Members of the Minority bench pushing them to call on government to hand over the governance of the country to them.

Exactly a year on since the last general election that brought the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to power, the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) said the failure of five Ministers who have been scheduled to appear before the House to respond to questions yesterday cannot be allowed to continue.

First Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim who made the claim said government business must be taken seriously and that if the NPP is not ready to administer power just a year after assuming that position, it should hand over to the NDC which is ready to govern.

‘’…just one year, if you can’t handle the power, give it to us, we are ready’’ he said.

The dissatisfied Ahmed Ibrahim who is also MP for Banda noted that the frequent abruption of the work of Parliament is adversely affecting the work of the House, this he said is not healthy for the country’s democracy.

The following Ministers were scheduled to appear before the House to respond to several questions from MPs but did not show up.

They include, Minister s for Railway Development, Joe Ghartey, Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu, Minister for Works and Housing, Samuel Atta- Akyea and Minister for Regional Reorganisation, Dan Botwe.

Second Deputy Majority Chief Whip, Moses Anim stated that the absentee Ministers had submitted their written answerers to the Table Office stating their unavailability due some other programmes.

Second Deputy Speaker, Alban Kingsford Bagbin who presided over the proceedings was equally not happy about the continues absenteeism of Ministers from the house and expressed a last cautionary statement to the Ministers to take the workings of the House seriously.

‘’…It doesn’t augur well for the house to be treated that way and am sure next time, it won’t be repeated again, so honorable Members, let’s take this for the last time’’ he stated.

By: Christian Kpesese/ thePublisher