The Deputy Minister of the Interior and Member of Parliament for Adansi-Asokwa, Hon. Kobina Tahir Hammond, yesterday caused what might probably be described as a linguistic stir on the floor of Parliament when he used the expression “personal intercourse with Asaga.” That was during the debate on the 2008 budget, which had attracted, as expected, different reactions from the two sides of the House.
The Ranking Member on Energy and MP for Nabdam, Moses Asaga, who started the debate, accused government of raising a great deal of excitement and placing so much importance on the oil Ghana had discovered while remaining silent on its production, which according to him, “raises a lot of suspicion on secret deals”.
He contended that according to his rough calculations, a whopping $55million had so far been accumulated since Ghana started the extraction of oil in Saltpond in 2007, claiming that government had not accounted for the money. It was at that juncture that the deputy Minister for the Interior, K.T. Hammond, professed that he had “had personal intercourse” with Hon. Asaga, and accused him of being malicious for claiming the figure was $55million when in fact he was the one who gave Hon. Asaga the actual figure.
Despite the parliamentarians’ differences on the budget, the expression, “personal intercourse” and its apparent connotation sent the whole House reeling with laughter. K.T. Hammond, who is not a character to be easily intimidated, in turn, kept shouting “Mo nte Brofo anaa?” to wit, “Don’t you understand English?” The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Freddie Blay, who presided over the sitting, had to pound his gavel several times, calling for order while exclaiming: “we want this to flow, so stop the heckling”.
Mr. Kweku Agyeman-Manu, Deputy Minister for Trade, Industry and Private Sector Development, challenged Hon. Asaga to draw up and send a memorandum through the right channel and desist from requesting the Bank of Ghana to collaborate with the Minister of Finance to make information public as regards the oil.That brought Alban S.K. Bagbin, Minority Leader to his feet, saying, “It was the law of Parliament to air their views on whatever issue. “As a chartered accountant, as you claim, you wouldn’t know that,” Bagbin stated.In his attempt to also debunk Hon. Agyeman-Manu’s comment, Hon. Asaga noted that “I can understand his ignorance of our rules. I have seen a stranger in this House and he is saying he is an MP. Is he an MP?”
Hon. John Mahama of Bole-Bamboi touched yet again on the controversial “talk tax” which attracted heated debate on Monday.According to him, the people of Ghana flashed the lines of their friends all the time because they could not afford to pay for airtime, stressing that the need for phones was a necessity and not a luxury. However, the Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Prof. George Gyan-Baffour jumped at Hon. Mahama when he accused MPs of not knowing how it felt to buy airtime for their phones since they were getting it free. Prof. Gyan-Baffour demanded a withdrawal of that statement by stating that he did in fact know how it felt to buy airtime since he was always buying it for his wife and children. Hon. Mahama tried putting up a fight but ended up withdrawing his statement.
