Parliament Begins Debate On National Reconciliation Bill

Parliament has began debate on the National Reconciliation Bill. The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey set the tone for the debate, when he reminded members to remove emotions and acrimonious points that would not be reconciliatory in their contributions.

He said: "You are reminded that we are considering the Reconciliation Bill and that matters that did not promote reconciliation should be kept out of the debate".


Members of both sides of the House debated on party lines dividing further, the House.


Mr Adjetey made the point to bring Captain Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey (rtd), NPP MP for Berekum and Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development on track when he began referring to issues of atrocities in the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) era.


"It is for us to acknowledge that there were injustices committed in the past during unconstitutional periods of governance." Capt Effah-Dartey said there have been feelings of bitterness by relatives of those, who suffered some degree of human rights abuses.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Attorney General and Minister of Justice took the House through the second reading of the Bill. He read the memorandum to the Bill and quoted President John Agyekum Kufuor, who in his inaugural address said, "our greatest enemy is poverty.


"And the battle against poverty starts with reconciling our people and forging ahead in unity. We have gone through turbulent times and we should not in any way down play or brush aside the wrongs that have been suffered. I do not ask that we forget, indeed we dare not forget, but I do plead that we try to forgive."


Nana Akufo-Addo said it was in the NPP Manifesto to establish a National Reconciliation Committee as a special assignment "to heal the festering sores within our body politic".


The MP for Kumbungu and Ranking Member for the Committee for Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, said the establishment of the Commission poses a challenge to Parliament and the nation for desired reconciliation to be achieved.

He said a platform needed to be created to ventilate the wrongs so that there would be a healing effect instead of raking old wounds that would do no one good. Alhaji Mumuni said the history of the country needed to be authoritatively written with accurate events to establish the facts as they were and warned that "if at the end the Commission did not unite Ghanaians then we would have failed the nation.


"But that a story would be told where the perpetrators would listen and repent so that the repercussions would not be a boomerang." He said Ghana has all along been described as an oasis of stability and peace and that those attributes should not be destroyed on the altar of partisan and parochial interest.


He called for openness, an all-inclusiveness and participatory and consultative approach to the work of the Commission so that it would involve Parliament and civil society. Alhaji Mumuni said at the appropriate time the Minority would make inputs into the Bill to enhance its passage.


Mr Kwame Osei-Prempeh, NPP MP for Nsuta Kwamang, said the appointment of members of the Commission by the President in consultation with the Council of State was in the right direction.

He said those opposing the President from doing that were defeating the argument adding: "The Electoral Commissioner was appointed by the NDC (National Democratic Congress) government. The NDC lost the election so do we say that that appointment was wrong."


He said all the abuses in Kwame Nkrumah and Busia regimes had been atoned for and that it was the PNDC era that people had not been brought to book about human rights abuses.


Mr Cletus Avoka, NDC MP for Bawku West, cautioned that care should be taken that the objective of the Bill of uniting the country would not open the floodgates to destruction.


He said Ghana should take a cue from other countries that have established such commissions and examine whether they had achieved their objectives or that it was only money spent in futility to the detriment of people.

Mr Avoka said following from Ghana's experience of about 10 years constitutional rule could it not be said that the country was united enough to avoid the establishment of the Commission.


To him, the money to be used on the Commission could better be utilised on strengthening the existing constitutional bodies that dealt with human rights abuses. It would also be better if such a fund were used to fight poverty, disease and under-development, which were the enemies of the people.


Mr John Kwekucher Ackah, NDC MP for Aowin-Suaman, said since the Bill was meant to be a national exercise it should be viewed in a national character and not focus on only those who suffered during military regimes since others too suffered during the First and Second Republics.


He said the membership of the Commission merits the consideration of the President but in seeking approval Parliament's role needed to be sought. What was most worrying to him was that the Committee was silent about Parliament's role in the Reconciliation Bill and therefore advised the Attorney - General to take input from Parliament to make it more national.