President Mahama arriving in Parliament
DRAMA UNFOLDED in Ghana’s Parliament yesterday when members of the Minority New Patriotic Party (NPP) walked out of the chamber, leaving empty seats and a half-filled House for President John Dramani Mahama to deliver his state-of-the-nation address amidst catcalls.
The NPP MPs stormed out of the House immediately after Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho invited Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor and Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, majority and minority leaders respectively, to accompany him to usher in President Mahama for his address.
Before staging the walkout, the MPs displayed leaflets with inscription “stealers’, apparently keeping faith with their avowed belief that the 2012 presidential election was stolen for President Mahama, candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The empty Minority side
However, while the NPP MPs were walking out of the House’s chamber, their NDC counterparts also created a different spectacle, as they hooted at their colleagues, shouting, “Shame, shame”.
The NDC MPs had to fill some of the empty seats left by NPP members before President Mahama took the stage to deliver the state-of-the-nation address in accordance with Article 67 of the constitution.
It would be recalled that in 2007, the Minority NDC boycotted the state-of-the-nation address by President John Agyekum Kufuor.
They were protesting against the conviction of the then Keta MP, Dan Abodakpi.
In a message that lasted about one and half hours, President Mahama outlined four pillars- putting the people first, a strong and resilient economy, expanding infrastructure and transparent and accountable governance- which according to him, underpinned the government’s development programme.
He said he had been having sleepless nights because of the blackouts which characterized electricity supply in the country currently.
DAILY GUIDE had earlier predicted the episode that unfolded in Parliament yesterday following an emergency meeting by the minority caucus on Wednesday afternoon.
Missing in Action
Incidentally, neither of the two surviving former Presidents, Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor, was present in Parliament to grace the occasion, which was attended by Justices of the Supreme Court, members of the diplomatic corps and traditional leaders among others.
NPP had refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of President Mahama, contesting at the Supreme Court the Electoral Commission’s declaration of NDC candidate as president after the 2012 presidential election.
The party’s presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and two others had petitioned the Supreme Court, challenging the presidential results because they believed the election was laden with widespread irregularities and malpractices.
In line with this, the Minority caucus had been boycotting the vetting of the ministers appointed by President Mahama as a sign of protest until the declaration by the Supreme Court.
Yesterday’s boycott of the state-of-the nation address, according to the minority caucus, was still in tandem with their denial of President Mahama’s legitimacy and this would continue until the highest court of the land decides otherwise.
NPP State Of The Nation
Later in an interview with DAILY GUIDE, Minority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu hinted his side would be presenting the true state of the nation on Tuesday.
Quoting Article 34 of the constitution, the minority leader said the state of the nation must dwell on the realization of basic human rights, health of the economy, employment and education for the citizenry.
Article 34 (2) of the constitution stipulates that “The President shall report to Parliament at least once a year all the steps taken to ensure the realization of the policy objectives contained in this Chapter and, in particular, the realization of basic human rights, a healthy economy, the right to work, the right to good health care and the right to education”.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is also the MP for Suame, Kumasi, in Ashanti Region said Ghanaians would be the better judges whether President Mahama presented the current state of the Ghanaian economy.
The NDC administration, he bemoaned, had refused to heed NPP’s advice that its unbridled borrowing would cripple the nation’s economy.
According to him, NDC’s uncontrolled borrowing had increased the country’s debt stock from a little above GH¢8billion in 2008/9 to a current figure of GH¢34 billion.
He regretted that with all this borrowing by the NDC administration, the country was still experiencing soaring petroleum prices, widespread load-shedding and flippant power outages, and water rationing in many parts of the country among numerous economic and social problems.
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