Minority MPs to “walkout” on Mahama’s nominees

All Minority lawmakers will “walkout” during debate on the report of the Appointments Committee later this week, a senior New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament (MP) has exclusively told Citi FM’s Richard Sky.

“The action will be in keeping with our resolve not to help President John Mahama form his government in anyway,” the source said. “We strongly believe the NDC did not genuinely win the 2012 elections and that is why we are at the Supreme Court asking the Judges to overturn the results declared by the Electoral Commission.”

Without giving away too much detail, the source said: “I can say with certainty that we, in the Minority will not be part of the debate and we will also not take part in the vote on the nominees.”

The source said the leadership of the Minority “will meet later today to firm up our plans.”

It comes just a day ahead of the planned reopening of Parliament after a two-week-long break.

citifmonline.com is reliably informed that at Tuesday’s sitting of Parliament, First deputy Speaker and Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Ebo Barton Oduro, will lay the report of his Committee before Parliament for debate and approval.

Although the fine details of the report are not public, insiders say, the Committee will ask the House to approve all the nominees vetted last week.

The Committee took the decision behind closed doors after Friday’s public sitting.

“When the seven nominees were put to a vote, not single member of the committee dissented,” said a senior member of the Appointments Committee. “What it means is that barring any last minute hitches, the Committee report will be asking the House to approve all seven nominees by consensus.”

Last week, the Minority in Parliament announced it was boycotting the public vetting of President John Mahama’s Ministerial nominees. The decision drew a deluge of public outrage, prompting, for instance, the Clergy and the Ghana Bar Association, to publicly call on the Minority group to reconsider its decision.

In a statement, the Clergy Association said, “We respect your right to exercise a boycott but at this moment when the nation is going through challenging times, you could have been a bit circumspect not to do anything to heighten the tension.

“Even though you are in court it is still your constitutional and patriotic duty to help GHANA get the best in governance so boycotting any event that borders on governance is to let down the many people who love you and voted for you.

“May God touch your hearts to reconsider your decision which is very crucial to the future development of our nation and its democracy... Rom. 14:16....Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil.”

The GBA and the Clergy’s intervention notwithstanding, the Minority stood their grounds and avoided the two-day public vetting of 7 out of the 31 Ministerial nominees named by John Mahama upon his assumption of office as President of the republic.

They are; Seth Terpker, Minister -designate for Finance and Economic Planning, Hanna Serwaah Tetteh, Minister-designate for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Collins Dauda, Minister-designate for Water Resources, Works and Housing, and Mahama Ayariga, Minister designate for Information.

The rest are; Clement Kofi Humado, Minister designate for Agriculture, Alhaji Amin Sulemani, Minister-designate for Roads and Highways, and Inusah Fuseini, Minister-designate for Lands and Natural Resources.