A long day for a Parliamentary bill

By Samuel Osei Frempong

Accra, Aug.27, GNA -In the main chamber of Parliament, ninety chairs sat empty as a medical doctor struggled to tidy up the entrails of a bill likely to be his first taste of a major surgery in the House. The National Health Insurance Bill was the sick man, the chamber, his theatre, standing orders and time; instruments. He had no handkerchief to wipe his face when sweat run down his head to chin in an over-chilled chamber where a scaring gaping emptiness of the "other side" seemed to overshadow the unflinching support of his party men.


His long travels to his beloved Sefwi could not whip up such anxiety as the passage of a bill firmly rooted in his party's electoral campaign. The geographical terrain, the seemingly endless "ropes" of road that literally run into the skies are too familiar for the native son's eyes.


But to be seated in a soft chair and yet feel as if he was sitting on an uneven concrete surface is just too strange for a Minister of Health.


For several long months, the opposition had taunted members of government for sleeping comfortably, while the people languished as a result of the cash and carry.


But to use State of Emergency in Dagbon as an excuse to pass a bill that would put to rest an accusation that seemed to betray the trust of the people was unusual.


Cuba's Fidel Castro had harvested sugar cane on Christmas day and celebrated Christmas after the molasses had come out of the mill. Mr Felix Owusu Agyepong, Majority Leader, said to sit during holidays to consider important bill was worth it.

Members in their usual mood of solidarity thronged the Hall to give him the needed support to pass a bill that sapped the very libido of the Majority Leadership.


Mr J.H.Mensah, Senior Minister, had ran through an open chamber and argued for hours only to remember that, "malaria which is no respecter of old age had not left his system."


Mr C.O Nyanor, Member for Upper Denkyira, walked discreetly with one eye trapped in huge plaster.


Only votes were needed and it just did not matter how they came to the chamber.


As a long week and two days ended with the passage of the bill, sweat, fatigue and anxiety gave way to vitality and it was like a difficult successful surgery for a Medical Doctor who until recently choose to heal sick people in his beloved Sefwi.


.. It was a normal afternoon and the sun looked down cheerfully on the mortal men who had sold their very lives and souls into the business of spearheading the development of their people.