Features
Cracking the whip on leakers of sensitive and secret information in parliament
Very recently, the Speaker of Parliament Rt. Honourable Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin had the opportunity to caution against the practice of the leakage of sensitive parliamentary documents to the press. Addressing a staff durbar held on April 2, 2022 in the chamber of Parliament, Mr. Bagbin said “the practice reduces the reputation of the institution and what it represents in the eyes of the citizens.” He advised the staff to work as a team to ensure that Ghana’s Legislature attains its vision of developing into a model parliament worthy of emulation by other Legislative institutions.
TIMELY WARNING BY THE SPEAKER
The Speaker has, indeed, hit the nail right on the head by cautioning his charges to be circumspect about the leakage of vital and classified information on proceedings in the august House to some media personnel who for political advantage or expediency will like to twist the contents of these documents for their personal gains. If really what the Speaker is saying reflects the true state of events in parliament, then those engaged in that criminal and dastardly act must bow their heads in shame.
The parliamentarians and indeed, the entire staff of the Parliamentary Service should by now know that the institution in which they belong, which is the second arm of government- the Executive being the first and the judiciary being the third, is the most sensitive, crucial and important body in our dear country as far as democratic governance is concerned. It is a house of records, therefore, everything it does must be kept secret and well protected. If in an attempt to expose and malign the authority of this noble institution, some aggrieved members will go to the extent of releasing classified and official secret document to the media, then we are not safe in this country. The institution of parliament must be equated to National Security where vital information is kept from the public knowledge because it has the tendency to create confusion and sometimes destabilise the country.
PARLIAMENTARY FUNCTIONS
Parliament which is made up of all representatives of various constituents across the country, controls and guides the government in the day to day administration of governance. It is the ultimate authority for making laws. Across the globe, Parliament in any nation, has the powers to abolish an existing law, replace the old abolished law with new law, amend existing laws and create new laws.
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana has given our parliament a huge oversight responsibility and a lot of power to carry out various functions of holding a check on the Executive on public expenditure as well as being accountable to the people who gave them their mandate to rule this country. Parliament, as a strong institution, has the power to determine its own procedure and agenda and neither the President nor even the courts may interfere in its internal affairs.
IMMUNITY ENJOYED BY PARLIAMENT
Our Parliament enjoys a wide scope of immunity, even from court processes as provided for under the constitution. Quite apart from this internal provisions, our constitution gives parliament the power and authority to disapprove public expenditure, grants, loans, taxes and even the entire national budget. This presupposes that nothing can be done by government and for that matter the Executive arm without the approval of parliament. The appointment of Ministers, Article 71 office holders which include the Chief Justice and the Justices of the Supreme Court as well as other appointments in key positions in the various sectors of the economy is done with the tacit endorsement by parliament. That in essence shows how powerful this great institution is as far as our young democracy is concerned.
CURRENT COMPOSITION OF PARLIAMENT
Currently, the membership of our parliament which is significantly a two-party state is a hung parliament with no absolute majority of legislators. Out of the total 275 seats, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition National Democratic Congress have a split vote of 137-137 respectively with one independent member who has decided to align himself to the ruling NPP. Unlike the previous parliament in which the Speaker normally came from the ruling party, this time round, we have a Speaker came from the opposition NDC. The situation now has made parliament very active, especially in this hung parliament. Even though, at times, there are delays in the passage of some of the bills such as the controversial E-Levy (Electronic Transaction) Bill, which took about five months before approval and passage, the Speaker to some extent, has been resolute and firm in dealing with issues in the house. The two deputies, Messrs Joseph Osei-Owusu (First Deputy) and MP for Bekwai and Andrew Asiamah Amoako (Second Deputy), the only independent candidate, have all performed well so far.
Currently, the house has 40 female MPs with 20 each from both the ruling NPP and the opposition NDC. Even though the representation of women in our parliament continues to be very low, those available continue to make an impact in parliamentary proceedings as they articulate the concerns of their constituents effectively.
CONSULTATION AND CONSENSUS BUILDING AMONG MPs
It is important to state that the present state of our parliament where there is no clear majority in the house with the two main parties having 137-137 MPs, demands that there should be adequate consultations by the two parties as well as dialogue and consensus building to avoid the unnecessary conflicts which continue to be the bane in the house most recently. The lack of consultation and consensus building between these two parties in recent times, generated heated arguments and in some cases resulted in commotion and fight among our MPs.
That lack of trust between the two parties in the house in which one party would like to outdo the other, has necessitated the leakage of vital and official documents to media personnel sympathetic to each other to either publish or air information to defame or malign the two parties. It is time for our MPs to know that the positions they occupy are so sensitive, therefore, they ought to behave maturely and professionally.
LIVING UP TO THAT TITLE HONOURABLE
For the Speaker to have cautioned members and, indeed, the staff of the Parliamentary Service to stop giving out parliamentary documents to the press presupposes that the practice is on-going in the house and this must stop immediately to protect the integrity and sanctity of our august Parliament. Members should know that the people gave them their mandate to represent and serve their interests in parliament not to involve themselves in issues detrimental to the progress of our dear country. We call them honourable and we expect them to do things that will conform to the titles we have bestowed on them.
It is time the leadership of the House for that matter the Speaker took steps to crack the whip to stop all the negative acts including the leakages of vital and sensitive documents to the media to protect the integrity of Parliament and make it more sensitive and proactive in its avowed constitutional mandate in Ghana.
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By Charles Neequaye
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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