Approval of ministers can’t measure the quality of parliament – Dr Kunbuor

Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, a former Minister of State under the erstwhile NDC administration has noted that the quality of a parliamentary system cannot be judged by the approval or disapproval of Ministers of State.

Speaking to Citi TV on Tuesday, April 20, Kumbuor said: “As to whether Ministers are approved or not approved, I will not be doing that as a measure of the quality of a Parliament. The quality of a Parliament is how you address the daily concerns of the real grassroots; I will be interested in parliamentary statements that are depicting pictures of bad roads, showing dilapidated school buildings, showing the socially excluded and the vulnerable in the society and calling on the government to address them; this is really the value and quality we should expect from the parliament of an emerging economy,” Dr Benjamin Kunbuor explained.

The 8th Parliament of Ghana can be described as a hung parliament with equal numbers of both ruling and opposition members.

The opposition party now has the Speaker of Parliament but many opposition party members are unhappy about how the opposition leadership is running the affairs of parliament.

Sammy Gyamfi, a Communications Director of the NDC in a Facebook post criticized the NDC caucus in parliament following the controversial approval of some ministerial nominees.

In comments on Facebook, Gyamfi described the handling of the minister-nominees as a betrayal.

His remarks singled out the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu; the Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak and even the NDC-backed Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin.

“They brazenly defied the leadership of the party and betrayed the collective good for their selfish interest,” Gyamfi said.

“The shame they have brought on the party will forever hang like an albatross around their necks,” he added.

Sammy Gyamfi, however, said the NDC will not be perturbed by the outcomes of the debate on the ministerial nominees.

He further suggested that he was in favour of changes in the leadership of the NDC in parliament.

Gyamfi believes the leadership of the NDC caucus “have lost their moral authority to lead and are not fit to sit on the front bench of the NDC side of the House”.