Arkaah Resurfaces

Ghana's former Vice-President, Kow Nkensen Arkaah who has been conspicuously absent from public and political activities for about four years last Sunday resurfaced in parliament together with his wife Marian to participate in activities marking the inauguration of parliament and Mr. J.A. Kufuor.

Mr. Arkaah and his wife arrived a bit late and had to stand for some time to allow some politicians and parliamentary staff arrange chairs for them, but this took them about ten minutes and as such the former vice president and his wife had to remain standing to while away time with a chat with some known politicians. When finally they were provided with chairs, the controversial Arkaah who described himself as a stubborn cat sat comfortably and crossed his legs with his wife Mariam sitting in front of him watching the proceedings in the House.

Other top politicians who were in the House to witness the inauguration of parliament were, Dr. Wereko Brobby, the flabearer of the United Ghana movement, Mr. Goosie Tanoh, the presidential Candidate of the national Reform party, Dr. Edward Mahama, the Flagbearer of the People's National Convention, Professor Hagan, the Convention People's Party's flagberer, and Mr. Dan Lartey, the flagbearer of the Great Consolidated People's Party. Also in the House to witness the swearing in ceremony of the elected MPs were party gurus and chiefs as well as members of the Diplomatic corps.

Meanwhile some political analysts who spoke to The Independent were not happy at the positions of some outspoken MPS citing for instance why the former majority leader, Dr. Kwabena Adjei is now a back bencher. They also would not understand why Hon. John Mahama, the former Communications Minister and Hon. Kofi Attor, the former Majority spokesman for Foreign Affairs are all now back benches.

MeanwhileParliament at its preliminary sitting on Sunday elected Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey, a Veteran politician and a legal luminary as the Speaker for the next four years. The house also elected Mr. Freddie Blay as First Deputy Speaker and Mr. Kenneth Dzirasah as the Second Deputy Speaker. But this was not without drama that clearly depicted battle lines that are going to characterise debates in the House for the next four years.

This was when the majority leader, Hon. J.H. Mensah had nominated Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey as the proposed candidate for the post of speaker. The Minority Leader, Hon. A.S.K. Bagbin openly registered his displeasure both at the nomination of Mr. Ala Adjetey whom he described as an active supporter of the Majority NPP and also the late Communication to the Minority about the Majority's choice.

Hon Bagbin, seconding the nomination expressed regrets that Mr. Ala Adjetey a one-time chairman of the NPP had been nominated for the post of a Speaker as his side feared Mr. Ala Adjetey might be baise when it comes to debating certain issues in the House. The Majority leader stood to react to the assertions by the Minority Leader but the Minority NDC Members of parliament obstracted him from speaking and angrily ordered him to sit down.

After this short drama Mr. Ala Adjetey was sworn into office as the Speaker of the third parliament of the forth republic by the Chief Justice, I.K. Abban. In his acceptance speech, the Rt. Hon. Speaker, Mr. Ala Adjetey thanked the MPs for the confidence reposed in him and promised to live up to expectation. He called on MPs to also endeavor to do their best to relieve Ghana of its economic decay and to reverse the negative trend of affairs in the country. In another development the former speaker of the of the second parliament of the fourth republic, Justice D.F. Annan has announced his retirement from active public service.

Mr. Annan who has been the speaker for two successive terms of four years each did not assign any reason to his retirement but some political analysts say old age is telling on him. In his ceremonial speech to dissolve the second parliament Justice Annan said the House really achieved a lot for Ghana and thanked all MPs for their support and hardwork.

The former majority leader, Dr. Kwabena Adjei urged the media to be more proactive and circumspect in their reportage of issues from parliament. He mentioned low salaries and allowances as some of the things that affected the performance of some MPs and called for proper way of solving that problem to enable MPs give of their best.

The former Minority Leader, Hon. J.H. Mensah urged the third parliament to learn from the mistakes and successes of the former House to guide to do better.