The Executive Director of the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Dr Rasheed Draman, has said the Minority in Parliament will face an uphill task in its bid to censure the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, if he fails to resign as they are demanding over alleged financial irregularities in the evacuation of Ghanaians from South Africa.
He said the two-thirds majority required under the Constitution, coupled with Ghana’s entrenched partisan politics, makes it unlikely that the motion will succeed unless members of the Majority break ranks to support it.
“With the numbers, statistically it is impossible because they need two-thirds,” Dr Draman said in an interview with the Daily Graphic predicting that the Minority could lose the parliamentary vote but still gain politically by placing questions of accountability before the electorate.
Minority’s allegations
The Minority is demanding Mr Ablakwa’s resignation over the evacuation of 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa at a reported cost of GH¢49.72 million.
At a press conference at Parliament House last Tuesday, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, said the Minority’s examination of documents obtained from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had uncovered discrepancies in payment records, duplicated entries and gaps in supporting documentation.
He also cited media reports that some evacuees had allegedly not received their full allowances, calling for an independent audit to establish the facts and determine responsibility.
The Minority has threatened to initiate parliamentary proceedings for a vote of censure if the minister fails to resign. The allegations have not been independently established.
Dr Draman said Article 82(1) of the 1992 Constitution provides for Parliament to pass a resolution censuring a minister, provided it receives the support of not less than two-thirds of all MPs.
With Parliament comprising 276 members, he estimated that the motion would require about 184 votes. The Minority, he said, has just over 80 members and would need more than 100 MPs from the Majority to cross the threshold.
He cited the Eighth Parliament’s attempt by the then Minority to censure the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta which was referred to an ad hoc committee chaired by Mr K.T. Hammond but did not result in a successful censure.
Dr Draman said the current controversy risked following the same partisan pattern, with members defending or condemning the minister largely along party lines.
He nevertheless rejected calls for a constitutional amendment to lower the threshold, arguing that the existing requirement helps guard against abuse of the censure process.
“All you need is the political will on the part of every individual member of Parliament” to look beyond party affiliation and vote in the national interest, he said.
Uganda’s lesson
Dr Draman urged Ghanaian MPs to learn from Uganda, where Parliament in 2023 censured the Minister of State, Ms Persis Namuganza, despite the ruling party’s dominance.
He said 348 members voted in favour of the censure, five voted against, while a few abstained.
The vote, he said, demonstrated that legislators could hold a colleague accountable when they believed misconduct could not be tolerated.
He challenged Ghanaian MPs to show similar courage rather than allow party loyalty to determine their position on matters of public interest.
Electoral stakes
Although Dr Draman predicted that the Minority’s motion would likely fail, he said the effort could help shape public opinion, particularly among swing voters who do not identify with either the National Democratic Congress (NDC) or the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He said the controversy would give voters an opportunity to assess how both sides handled allegations involving public funds and the exercise of political accountability.
