The Minority in Parliament has rejected a proposal to allocate more time to the Majority Caucus during the debate on the State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi, raised concerns on the floor of Parliament, stating: “Mr. Speaker, I have two points to make. One on this proposal for proportionality, and then one on something else which I believe should be programmed in the business statement for next week.”
He continued: “First, Mr. Speaker, is this question of proportionality. For the purposes of debate, that is why next week we have an opportunity, I think about four days or five days or so, to debate”.
“A debate to exchange contrasting views on what His Excellency the President has presented. Is there anybody on the majority side who is going to say he disagrees with the President?”
Oppong Nkrumah argued that the proposal for proportional representation would stifle debate and prevent the Minority from presenting contrasting views on the President’s address.
He said: “What is going to happen, Mr. Speaker, is that in this debate, the contrasting views that you will get, you will get from this side. And that is why the convention has been over the years, from the first, parliament, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth, that when one person speaks on the other side, ostensibly to repeat what the President has said, you will get a contrasting view from another person from this side.”
He emphasized: “So, Mr. Speaker, we should not fall for this temptation that we are now coming to do some proportional representation when it comes to the debate on the state of the nation. The convention has always been the one from this side, one from this side.”
Oppong Nkrumah also drew attention to the absence of key policy documents from the government’s business statement.
He noted: “If you look at the business statement for the week ahead of us, you would imagine that any other matter that is a precursor to the budget leader should be executed next week before the budget is brought. There are about three policy documents that the government benches have advertised to the whole country, which are relevant to the budget.”
He specified: “You have what you call the economic recovery program. You have the economic transformation agenda. And then you have your 24-hour economy policy”.
“Mr. Speaker, the budget that we are going to receive on the 11th is based on these documents. None of these documents has been brought to this House.”
Oppong Nkrumah urged the government to include these documents in the business statement, allowing Parliament to scrutinize and provide input before the budget is presented.
He said: “I think that what the government benches should consider, including in this business statement, is bringing to this House the 24-hour economy policy, the economic recovery program, and the economic transformation agenda, so that Parliament can have an opportunity to see it, make input into it, query it, before the budget itself is brought.”
-BY Daniel Bampoe
