<<Print>>

Members of Parliament (MPs) spent nearly half an hour debating what kind of attire they must wear to work on Saturday. The debate ensued after the Business Committee announced that the House will sit on Saturday to transact a crucial official business. Saturday�s sitting will take-off not long after a widely publicized Health Walk expected to be staged early on Saturday � an arrangement that has drawn criticism from some MPs. �Sometimes when we are programming ourselves, we should look at the statistics available to the House. Mr. Speaker, we will be exercising for over two hours and then we come back and there are no changing rooms in this August House, what will we do? Mr. Speaker, these are very important issues. We are coming here at 6 am to do exercise, yes we accept it, it is for our own health. But after hours of strenuous walk, you don�t expect us to come here with the sweat and all that to come and work�,� a worried MP said. Another female MP remarked that �if women are supposed to come with our sportswear, it will not be conducive for this environment. And again, to go for a sports walk in an African wear is also not appropriate so for us as to reach a consensus, probably the time should be shifted � because you don�t expect us to come and sit in the chamber having walked in this scorching sun.� �Our washroom also do not have showers in here and even if it did have showers, the numbers here cannot go in there to shower before so Mr. Speaker, humbly I�m pleading that African wear for the health walk is totally inappropriate and for the women to come after the walk into this chamber with our sportswear only God knows what will happen,� the lady MP added. �Mr, Speaker I�m thinking that we can learn from what our brothers in the Westminster do by sitting in the afternoon so that when we come here we can go back, wash and come back and have our normal Parliamentary sitting� another MP suggested. Shortly before the Presiding Speaker, Ebo Barton Oduro ruled that Saturday�s sitting of the House should begin at 12 noon, Majority Leader; Alban Bagbin proposed that MPs should sit later in the day and not the normal sitting time. He said: �Mr Speaker, I think after the health walk, I agree that after the health walk we need to go and freshen up and wear the normal African wear like we do on Fridays and come back to commence business� �I believe that when we commence sitting at 12 noon, we should be able to come back because the health walk will begin at 6 so after that members will go home, freshen up and return for us to begin business,� he added