MPs English Causes Confusion In Parliament

For a moment, members of Parliament taught they were in America listening to President Obama delivering his speech until the MP for Ashaiman, Mr. Alfred Kwame Agbesi drew the attention of the Rt. Hon. Speaker that the member on the floor, Mr. Richard Akuoko Adiyia is speaking some English the whole House do not understand.

In the midst of Mr. Agbesi’s point of order, all the members in the chamber, including Madam Speaker couldn’t help to control their emotions and started laughing uncontrollably.

Mr. Adiyia, New Patriotic Party (MP) for Ahafo-Ano North, was on the floor making a statement on the recent road accidents in the country but he was doing so in what some described as “typical American slang” and most of them couldn’t make head or tail of what he was saying.

Hence the attention from the MP for Ashaiman that his colleague on the floor was speaking some English he and some of the other MPs do not understand. Mr. Adiyia upon directions from the Rt. Hon Speaker, Mrs. Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo decided to go slow in reading his statement for his colleagues to better appreciate his concerns but his emotions about the subject he was talking about was so strong that he found it very difficult to hide his American accent.

In his substantive statement, Mr. Adiyia noted that according to records compiled by the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit in 2010, 1,760 Ghanaians lost their lives through motor accidents, while 11,147 people were injured in 12,981 motor accidents involving 18,589 vehicles, stressing that from 2007 to 2010 a total of 6,213 lives had been lost.

Mr. Adiyia pointed out that the root cause of road accidents in Ghana is attributed to many factors which includes gross indiscipline on the roads, overloading, fatigue driving, drunk driving and other over speeding, poor nature of the roads, poor maintenance of vehicles, total disregard for traffic regulations by most drivers and indiscriminating use of the road by some pedestrians.

To him, the road traffic laws have become toothless bulldogs, therefore drunk drivers and people involved in over speeding and loading have no reason to fear, adding that the results on the roads have become death traps. He suggested that for a sustained public awareness, information dissemination, public campaigns and making road safety an integral component of the curriculum for basic and 2nd cycle schools.