Parliament will sit Tuesday and MPs must turn up - Second Deputy Speaker

The Second Deputy Speaker, Mr Alban Bagbin, has directed Members of Parliament to turn up in the House, Tuesday, March 17, to ensure the smooth deliberations of the business of the House.

“We are not in normal times and people must understand that we are a democratic state and that is the concept of democracy,” he stated.

Imperative for Parliament sit
The directive came after the Majority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, had informed the House that he had heard some colleague MPs making statement to the media to the effect that “in accord with the President’s directive Parliament shall have to curtail our sittings.”

“Speaker, it is imperative that Parliament sits. The President, even when we met him today, wants us to do some work and discharge some constitutional responsibilities which requires of us to take a decision. The decision of this House should be supported by a vote of not less than one-half of the entire membership.
“So people should not be simplistic in their rationalisation or extrapolation of what the President has said to mean that the House should not have more than 25 members sitting at a given time,” he stated.

Legal effect
Addressing the concerns of the Majority Leader, Mr Bagbin told the members of the House that the President led in the formulation of policies and that it was not at all times that the policy would have to pass through all the stages.

“In urgent situations, the President’s got to take a firm position and declare, sometimes using words like immediate effect. That is in the interest of the collective of all of us but that deals with policy.

“For it to take serious legal effect, you have the other arm of government or the Legislature to come and give approval by passing the necessary legislation.

“So Parliament as an arm, even though we go by the dictates of the nation or firm position taken by the President, we still got to effect it by coming to plenary sessions and legislating to that effect,” he said.

Erroneous
He explained to the legislators that no member of the House should take it that the statement of the President made Sunday, March 16 (spelling out measures to deal with the new coronavirus pandemic, including the month-long ban on schools and social gatherings) required that “we are also bound not to come to Parliament to sit. That definitely is erroneous.
“Tomorrow, we want to see all Members of Parliament that are not disabled from coming to the House and to be here in their numbers for us to do a very essential business for mother Ghana. I so direct,” he added.