"Mr Speaker, should we debate your address?"

The Speaker of Parliament, Peter Ala Adjetey, on Tuesday avoided a precedent that would have amounted to numerous unfavourable interpretations.

He was asked by a member if the speech he delivered at the opening of the session could be adopted for debate by the House since it contained useful suggestions. The House is yet to be told when a Speaker had had his speech debated on the floor of Parliament.

Kosi Kedem, NDC-Hohoe South, had appealed for the debate because the Speaker had raised pertinent issues that rested on the running of the House and the response of Executive to its demands.

Adjetey said: "It would set a dangerous precedent however, if any member wish to quote any part of it, why not." He said the final decision lies with the Business Committee and he would not want to be personally involved.

Kedem said he had a genuine cause for raising the issue since the House would be better off if the Speaker's concerns were debated but the dictates of politics would not allow such a suggestion to be taken at the first throw.

During the last debate on the State of Emergency in Dagbon, he got Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor to make one of his most regrettable statements yet in the House. The Minister of Defence had cause to disassociate the present government from the Busia legacy when Kedem said there was a perception that a similar crisis happened under the Busia Administration.

Dr Addo-Kufuor later retracted the statement and declared his commitment to the Busia legacy. J.H. Mensah, Senior Minister, said the Dagbon crises happened in September 1969, under the National Liberation Council.