The Minority in Parliament is becoming irrelevant

Our minority in parliament on yesterday 6th February 2018 boycotted parliamentary proceedings on the matter of "cash-for-seat" report.

A 5-member bipartisan adhoc committee was tasked by Parliament to investigate the alleged collection of monies from some expatriates to allow them sit close to President Akufo-Addo during the 2017 Ghana Expatriates Business Awards ceremony, the reported was laid before parliament today for debate.

The latest challenge follows reports is that, one of the Committee members on the Minority side, Dr. Dominic Ayine, had insisted that he wants to present the minority’s side of the report to parliament, the question here is, which report should be accepted as authentic or original? The adhoc committee report which was presented by the committee chairman or the minority report presented by Dr. Dominic Ayine? I presumed that Dr. Dominic Ayine deliberately refused to the meeting in other to create confusion, which he has succeeded in doing.

According the majority leader "the Committee had all agreed to conclude the report on Wednesday, and present it today [Thursday], but Dr. Ayine did not show up at the hotel where the meeting was supposed to take place, despite several assurances from him.

The minority leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu in his interview said “Yesterday [Wednesday], they had programmed to meet at 3 o’clock in the afternoon to conclude everything in order to be able to submit the report today [Thursday]. One of them was absent, Dr. Dominic Ayine unfortunately, for whatever reason couldn’t go. They called him and he said he will be there at 5:00pm but he couldn’t go. They called him and he said they should give him two hours more which was 7:00pm. 7:00pm they called him, his phones were off. It was not until 12 midnight that he sent words to them to respond to their earlier calls.”

Clearly something is wrong somewhere, and the minority must be in a position to tell Ghanaians what they are up.

I have no doubt in my mind that there notthing untoward in the dealings. If you read article 14, preceding the definition of the responsibilities, which says that the MEF, that the foundation, will solicit all funds to hot the Durbar price event, from inception to hosting of the event and that all funds will be lodged into the MOTI [Ministry of Trade and Industry] account, till after the event is completed." This particular section was read to the hearing of both majority and minority that constitute the committee, yet the minority insist it was wrong for MOTI to have received those monies into the ministry accounts.

The Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry and the organizers of the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards (GEBA) clearly spelt out which party was responsible for soliciting for sponsorship and collection of monies for the awards ceremony. So one may ask, why is the minority crying more than the bereaved? Have members of the millennium Excellence Award Foundation complaining? How does it benefit the majority or the Trade minister? Or is just the usual propaganda to bundle us with the corrupt tag that is currently hanging on their neck like an albatross?

Honestly, the minority in parliament are gradually loosing grounds and respect in the face of the Ghanaian public, the lies, the propaganda and the deceit are far reaching unpardonable level.