Parliament must boost capacity to allow use of local language – Inusah Fuseini

Parliament must activate its systems and processes to allow lawmakers and persons who come before the house to use their local language of preference if need be.

This is the view of lawyer and former lawmaker, Inusah Fuseini, when he made submissions on Joy FM’s news analysis program, NewsFile.

GhanaWeb monitored his comments which included that current standing orders made provision for such and it was high time that the necessary measures be put in place to make that a reality.

Referring to article 47 of the standing orders which allows use of local language as and when, he said: “so the provision looks to make room for people who can speak other languages express themselves better to be able to do so and enjoins parliament to provide facilities for the purposes of achieving that objective.

“And so clearly it is a forward looking provision, we have not gotten there yet. There have not been attempts to operationalize this and that is the challenge.

“The parliament and state should provide facilities that will enable people to be able to express themselves in languages that they are comfortable with so that their speeches, their comments and their debates can be interpreted simultaneously,” he added.

The need for local language use in proceedings came up strongly last week during the vetting of Fisheries and Aquaculture minister-designate, Hawa Koomson. Her difficulty to articulate herself – language and sector knowledge wise - led to a debate about her suitability.