2022 Budget: We have no parliament in Ghana – Benjamin Nsiah

Head of Research and Training at the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC-GH), Benjamin Nsiah has posited that Ghana has no parliament.

To him, the only parliament we can boast of as a country is one that is controlled by the executive arm of government.

While he expresses dissatisfaction over this phenomenon, he notes that it is neither the fault of the NPP or the NDC that such a situation exists. He adds that all the blame must be placed on the 1992 constitution.

His comments follow the chaos that erupted in parliament following the deputy speaker’s decision to throw out a motion by the Minority requesting the rescission of the approval of the 2022 Budget.

In a panel discussion on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ show, Benjamin stated: “We have no parliament in Ghana. The parliament in Ghana is an arm of the executive. It could happen the number of the majority is 137, and the number of the minority is 137 but the influence of the executive is more than 100 percent. The executive is infiltrating parliament.”

Explaining why he holds this view, he explained: “The constitution tells us that more than 50 percent of Ministers must come from parliament so as a minister will you vote against a bad budget? So, I believe we can fault neither the NDC nor NPP fault because the Executive exerts much power.”

Background

The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu, has thrown out a motion by the Minority requesting for the approval of the 2022 budget on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, to be set aside.

The request was made by Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, a day after they boycotted proceedings.

He insisted that the processes used for approving the budget on Tuesday were a betrayal of the Standing Orders of Parliament and the 1992 Constitution.

But after a lengthy debate on the motion on Wednesday, the First Speaker in his ruling explained that per the Constitution and the Standing Orders of the House, he together with the Second Deputy Speaker are members of Parliament but only assist the Speaker of Parliament when the need arises.

He insisted that he was therefore not wrong in associating himself with the Majority side to approve the 2022 budget.