Speaker off to Kuwait

Story: Kweku Tsen & Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah.

Page 16, Nov 7, 2007
THE Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, has left Accra for the Islamic Republic of Kuwait at the invitation of the Consultative Assembly of that country, the Shura.
The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alhaji Alhassan Yakubu, who informed Members of Parliament (MPs), said the invitation to the Speaker was confirmed last week by the Kuwaiti Consultative Assembly.
Alhaji Yakubu said this in an answer to a question by the Deputy Majority leader, Mr Kyei Osei Mensah Bonsu, who wanted to know the whereabouts of Mr Sekyi Hughes.
According to Mr Mensah Bonsu, the House had to be informed about the absence of the Speaker, since the Standing Order Number 13 (2) obliged the Clerk to do so.
He quoted the order and supported it with the Number 13 (3) to buttress his argument, and stressed that it would be proper for MPs to be adequately informed about the whereabouts of the Speaker.
The Second Deputy Speaker agreed with the concern expressed by the Deputy Majority leader and asked the Clerk to accordingly inform the House of the absence of Mr Sekyi Hughes.
The Majority leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Abraham Ossei Aidoo, expressed a divergent opinion to the position of his deputy and quoted Standing Order Number 13 (1) to support his position.
Nevertheless, Alhaji Yakubu stood his grounds by stating that Mr Mensah Bonsu was right and that the Clerk should go ahead and notify the MPs about the absence of the Speaker.
After doing so, the Second Deputy Speaker said the Speaker had travelled to Kuwait and that the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Freddie Blay, was also in Burkina Faso at the invitation of the government.
While there, the two leading figures in the country’s legislature would seize the opportunity to share with their counterparts, the country’s democratic practices and the strides that Ghana had made in the social and economic spheres under the Fourth Republican Constitution.