Review Standing Orders-Samia

Page 3, Jan 10, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
HAVING entered Parliament as the sole Member of Parliament (MP) on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Ms Samia Yaaba Nkrumah is in a dilemma as to whether to belong to the Majority or the Minority in the House.
The MP, who is the daughter of the founder of the CPP, the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah, says she has been forced to sit with the New Patriotic Party Minority side due to the provision of the Standing Orders of the House.
The Standing Orders allows MPs to either belong to the Majority or the Minority side without giving them the chance to be on their own.
When the issue came to the floor of the House yesterday during the discussion of the report of Leadership on the Membership of the Committee of Selection, Ms Nkrumah made it categorically clear that although she would sit on the side of the Minority, she would vote on issues.
“My constituency is Ghana in general and Jomoro in particular and my contributions and voting patterns will be based on how such issues will positively affect the people,” she explained.
She said she was in a difficult situation pending the revision of the House’s Standing Orders, which would allow her to be on her own without being coerced to belong to either the Majority or the Minority.
“I am appealing to the leadership of the House to expedite action on the revision of the Standing Orders to enable me to assert my independence.”
When the Majority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin, laid the report on the membership of the committee of selection, he explained that it was the duty of the committee to prepare and report within the first 10 sitting days after its appointment, lists of chairmen, vice chairmen and members to compose the various standing committees of the House.
By an agreed formula, the committee, which has the Speaker as its chairperson, has 10 members from the Majority side and nine members from the Minority side.
From the NDC side are, Mr Alban Bagbin, Mr John A. Tia, Deputy Majority Leader; Mr E.T. Mensah, Ms Akua Sena Dansua, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, Alhaji Muntanka Mubarak, Mr Yaw Effa-Baafi, Alhaji Abukari Sumani, Elizabeth Amoah-Tetteh and Raymond A. Tawiah.
The NPP side comprises Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Minority Leader; Mr Ambrose Dery, Deputy Minority Leader; Mr Frederick Opare-Ansah, Mrs Gifty Eugenia Kusi, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, Mr Andrew Adjei-Yeboah, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Professor Dominic Fobih and Mr Isaac Kwame Asiamah.