Recent happenings in Parliament over the approval of government's budget statement and economic policy for the year 2022 has led Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah to call on colleague MPs, both on the majority and minority sides to join hands and work in the best interest of Ghana.
According to him, though both caucuses of the house may be in disagreement over certain policies government is planning on introducing through the 2022 budget, he believes it is about time they find a common ground on some 5 issues the minority side of the house has raised and work together to move the country forward.
Speaking on Citi TV’s Point of View programme on Wednesday December 1, 2021, the Minister said it is clear that both sides of the house have the country’s best interest at heart and as such, should work together beyond petty politics in delivering a better Ghana for the Ghanaian people.
“For me, it is a phase that we find ourselves in. We really need to get to the substance of the issue. The five issues that they have raised are the issues we have to deal with. When we have dealt with those issues, we should also agree on a certain method for reaching that point where we accommodate these issues because our citizens are watching us and expecting a lot from us. People are losing confidence in our ability to provide leadership and I think that is what we need to rise up to in these times,” he said
His comments comes at the back of fallout in Parliament over certain policies captured in the budget forcing members on both sides to stage walkouts on two different occasions when the budget was being laid before the house for vote.
The first was a reported rejection of the budget by an NDC-sided house after the majority side staged a walk out accusing the Speaker of the House, Alban Bagbin for acting in breach of the 1992 constitution after the Speaker claimed that 137 members of parliament had taken a decision to reject the budget, an act that fails the constitutional requirement of 138 MPs present in the house before a decision can be made.
However, the house reconvened the following week to properly consider the motion on the budget and subsequently approved it despite the minority’s refusal to participate in the sitting.
Though the house just finished considering the budget estimates for specific sectors of the economy before the passage of the appropriation bill to give the government the green light to spend according to monies appropriated in the budget, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah who is also MP for Ofoase Ayirebi has urged both sides of the house to show leadership by putting aside their differences and work on the substance of the budget to see how they can fine-tune it to address the various concerns raised so far.
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