In faraway United States of America, four Senators have been busy, leading a campaign to cause the US to impose financial sanctions on Ghana should the two ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees being hosted in the country flee and return to their alleged old ways of unleashing terror.
In Ghana, the 275-member legislature is yet to be officially briefed on why the nation’s President, John Dramani Mahama, chose to authorize the transfer of two Yemeni citizens after their release from the Detention Center to Ghana in the name of compassion without prior approval of Parliament.
The MP for Manhyia South, Mathew Opoku Prempeh, led a passionate campaign in Parliament on Friday pressing for answers as to why Ghanaian lawmakers are still in the dark on the agreement that brought the two men to Accra, weeks after they entered Ghana.
He lamented that the business statement which directs the issues to be discussed in Parliament “is tremendously silent” and that “the business statement is being presented to the House as if Parliament is not in Ghana.”
“There is nothing more urgent than the Syrian and the Guantanamo refugees in this country and it will be deemed Parliament is irrelevant in the institution of governance when the majority leader does not give an invitation to the Minister of Foreign Affairs or a minister of the presidency to come and explain to this House, how come these refugees have found their way into this country without Parliament being addressed. This has got nothing to do with politics, it has to do with governance and when you look at Article 75 of our constitution, it is clear on the matter,” the Manhyia South MP argued.
However, Alban Bagbin, the Majority Leader in Parliament, who usually reads the business statement for Parliament, chided the MP for raising the issue saying “Napo was talking about an item that is not before the business committee.”
“The business committee doesn’t go fishing for business to arrange for the house. We arrange businesses that come before the house and that business was no such business before the business committee. He was swimming in unknown waters trying to interpret the constitution and apply it. I think when we get to that stage we will know whether your understanding is medical or legal,” he added.
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