MPs unhappy over misspelling of names

Page 3, Jan 9, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Fifth Parliament of the Fourth Republic had its second sitting yesterday, with some new and old Members of Parliament (MPs) expressing concern over the misspelling of their names and the exclusion of their titles.
When the votes and proceedings of Wednesday’s sitting were discussed, some of the MPs were not happy that their names had been misspelt and their titles left out.
For about 30 minutes a number of the MPs drew the attention of the Speaker, Mrs Justice Joyce Bamford-Addo, to the misspelling of their names.
One of those MPs was Professor Samuel Kwadwo Amoako, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Akim Abuakwa North, whose name had been written without his title.
The Deputy Minority Leader and MP for Lawra/Nandom, Mr Ambrose Dery, also expressed concern over the fact that his name in the votes and proceedings had been written as Dery P. Dery.
The NPP MP for Sekondi, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, intervened that since the Fifth Parliament was in its early days, such mistakes were bound to happen and called on those affected to contact the Office of the Clerk to Parliament for the corrections.
In another development, there was laughter in the chamber when the Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who was the Deputy Majority Leader in the previous Parliament, referred to the Majority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin, as the Minority Leader.
Members from the Majority side teased Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, while some of them were heard calling on him to be abreast of the new change of roles in the House.
For the Speaker, she had her first baptism of fire when her mobile phone rang when she was leading the House to effect changes in the votes and proceedings of Wednesday’s sitting.
When the mobile phone rang, it caught the attention of the MPs and the audience in the press and the public galleries.
While everybody was looking in the direction of the MPs to see who might have caused such a stir, the Speaker realised that it was her phone which was ringing and she quickly put it off and apologised to the House.
“Honourable members, these are early days and I must learn,” she said apologetically.
The House adjourned sitting to enable the leadership to meet to discuss the formation of committees of the House to ensure its smooth running.