How Afenyo Markin's Cubavera attire generated 'friendly banter' in Parliament

There was a friendly banter between Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mohammed, and Deputy Majority leader, Alexander Afenyo Markin, regarding a designer outfit the latter wore to parliament yesterday, October 27, 2022. After the speaker admitted the motion for a vote of censure against Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, the deputy majority leader argued that the minority MPs failed to attach evidence to the motion to back their claims, therefore raising concerns that the minority did not follow proper procedure in the filing of the motion. In an attempt to correct the deputy majority leader in the parliamentary procedures, the minority chief whip asked if everything was okay with the deputy majority leader, as he could see, he came in pyjamas to parliament. "…I think there is something fundamentally wrong with my colleague and Mr. Speaker, permit me on a lighter note to say, I see him wearing a nightgown. Maybe he didn’t sleep at home and he slept and then got up and came to the house because he is wearing a pyjamas on top because what he is doing is completely out of order,” Muntaka said. In response to this, the Deputy Majority leader said he was wearing a designer outfit called Cubavera, which is commonly known to gentlemen, adding that the Minority chief whip did not know about it. "Mr Speaker, few gentlemen know about Cubavera. A Cubavera is a gentleman’s shirt. If out of ignorance the mouth speaketh, he has spoken out of ignorance. He doesn’t know about Cubavera. You don’t tuck in Cubavera or use a tie with it. It’s a formal gentleman's shirt, so if he had nothing to say about the legal issues raised," he explained. He, however, called the Minority Chief Whip to retract his comment. Responding to this, the Speaker interjected and said: “Hon. Minority Chief Whip, even though you said on the light side, I think what came up when we go beyond what is parliamentary because you know what is parliamentary if the honourable deputy majority leader had sinned against the dress code that again should have been drawn to the attention of the speaker before he was permitted submissions. I don’t think that the deputy majority leader has sinned against the dress code, which is why he was accepted. So you shouldn’t have referred to that and described what he was wearing as pyjamas, so I want you to humbly withdraw that aspect and move on to the serious business.” Based on that, Muntaka Mohammed apologized to the Deputy Majority leader, adding that he was a "Zongo boy" who did not know Cubavera. The exchanges brought laughter into the house, after which the house continued the debate before the house. Watch some GhanaWeb TV programmes below. NYA/BOG