Parliament: Any chance for lasting consensus building?

Ghana’s 2022 budget was rejected by the Minority in Parliament on Friday, November 26, 2021. Four days later, on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, however, the Majority Group in Parliament also overturned the decision and approved the policy document. Mr Joseph Osei Owusu, the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, who presided, said the rejection of the budget by the Minority was null, void and had no effect.

According to Mr Osei Owusu, the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin erred in presiding over the rejection of the budget “since there was no clear majority in the House during the proceedings.” Mr Osei Owusu said: “The consequence of this unfortunate error is that, it is void and inconsequential since it was done in violation of Article 104(1) of the 1992 Constitution.”

The Minority also claims that the approval of the budget by the Majority is unconstitutional and “an attack on Ghana’s parliamentary proceedings and democracy”. Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader in Parliament says; “the Majority engaged in a constitutional charade.” From the current tussle in Parliament; we reproduce this feature which was published in The Spectator on April 17, 2021, in this very column. I was privileged to have interacted with the venerable Mr Joseph Henry Mensah on a number of occasions and on varied reflective national issues. Affectionately called J.H. Mensah, the quintessential patriot, was very colourful but a controversial politician in the Ghanaian political history. Indeed, J.H. Mensah was not an ordinary Ghanaian politician. He was an international giant in his field of study; economics.

But more or less, he ended up in public life as a full-time politician; holding different portfolios at different times. He was virtually my father. I had the privilege to host him a number of times; on behalf of the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem Municipal Assembly. And he practically contributed to the development of the municipality when I was the Municipal Chief Executive and he, the Senior Minister in President Kufuor’s regime. Incontestably, J.H. Mensah was responsible for Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s Seven-Year Development Plan. He told me: “I was invited from the United Nations in 1961 to take charge of the Planning Commission of the Development Plan. “Kwame Nkrumah was the Chairman and I was the Executive Secretary.

I wrote the plan. I did not just take part, I was entirely responsible for it.” He said: “I was also the Chief Economic Adviser to the CPP government at the age of 33. And I was acting purely as a professional and not a member of the CPP. I never joined the CPP.” Readers, why am I disturbing you about this great man who died recently and was buried here in Ghana? In the Fanti language, it is said that “tekyerema mporo”. Literally translated; the tongue never gets rotten and that any word that comes out from the tongue, is everlasting.

Most often, we quote outsiders to support our arguments in our national development efforts. But today, let’s listen to J.H Mensah. He says, “consensus building in Parliament is one area that must be developed in our present civil constitutional dispensation.” According to J.H. Mensah, when the Progress Party was in power between 1969 and 1972, there was a great deal of consensus in Parliament. He said: “The late Komla Agbeli Gbedemah and later, E.R. Madjetey who became opposition leaders, had direct access to Dr K.A. Busia’s office.

“And in Parliament, the government involved the opposition in the planning of major policies.” According to him: “This runs counter to the present system where the Minority is left in the dark but asked to support government policies.” Mr. Mensah says: “You can’t use Parliament like a rubber-stamp.

So that anytime you want parliamentarians to vote on something; you drive them like sheep,” stressing that, “this is one of the fundamental defects of the democracy we are practising here.” Readers, as a nation we cannot have consensus by declaration. We can get consensus by discussions; involving compromising and bargaining. And is it happening in our Parliament? Otherwise, why should ballot boxes be kicked and “stolen” in Parliament and ballot papers chewed like tiger nuts? And, for example, why should the approval of the fiscal policy of government and ministerial nominees, become intractable bone of contention in Parliament? And why should the Speaker of Parliament be branded as making Parliament an enclave of top opposition figures and fanatics? And why should the General Secretary of the opposition NDC openly claim that the “incompetence” of the current Finance Minister will inure to the benefit of his party; come the 2024 general election; thus, resulting in his recent approval by the Minority as Finance Minister? In effect, as a nation can’t we enhance the development of consensus in Parliament, besides having our national priorities right? And as indicated by J.H. Mensah; in Parliament for instance, can’t the NPP administration involve the NDC in planning some of its major prolicies? Again, per J.H. Mensah’s example; can’t the leadership of the Minority have direct access to the President’s office? Are the two major political parties in Ghana enemies or opponents? Readers, democracy is more than the sum of its institutions.

A healthy democracy depends in a large part on the development of a democratic civic culture. Culture, in this sense, does not refer to art, literature or music but the behaviours, practices and norms that define the ability of a people to govern themselves. So, as a nation, can’t we develop our own democratic civic culture to govern ourselves?

Contact email/WhatsApp of the author: asmahfrankg@gmail.com (0505556179)

By G. Frank Asmah