Parliament divided over Otiko
Parliament yesterday deferred the approval of the Minister designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ms Otiko Afisah Djaba, to next Tuesday because the Minority and Majority MPs did not reach a consensus on her approval.
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The Minority members on the Appointments Committee of Parliament (APC), led by the Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, said they could not support Ms Djaba's approval because she did not do national service as required by the law and she also did not have the attitude and temperament to hold that office.
The debate followed a presentation of the report of the APC, which vetted the nominees, by its Chairman, Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu. The report indicated that the Majority and Minority members on the APC had agreed that the appointment of five ministers designate be approved by consensus but that of Ms Djaba should be by majority decision.
The five ministers designate, namely Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, the Minister designate for Monitoring and Evaluation; Mr Dan Kwaku Botwe, Minister designate for Regional Reorganisation and Development; Mr John Peter Amewu, Minister designate for Lands and Natural Resources; Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Minister designate for Employment and Labour Relations, and Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, Minister designate for Works and Housing, were subsequently approved by consensus.
The report recommended the approval of the nominees because they had sufficiently satisfied the committee that they had the knowledge and experience to man the respective ministries.
In separate contributions, MPs from the Majority and Minority sides shared the view that the nominees were generally knowledgeable and experienced to occupy their respective ministerial positions.
Minority's opposition
Summarising the position of the Minority, Mr Iddrisu said Ms Dzaba confirmed at the vetting that she did not do national service as required by the laws of the land.
Ms Dzaba, who is the National Women's Organiser of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), had told the APC that she could not do national service because she was outside the country at the time.
Besides, Mr Iddrisu said Ms Dzaba had refused to withdraw, apologise or show remorse for allegedly describing former President John Dramani Mahama as evil before the December 7, 2016 election.
He said the Minority members were more concerned about the temperament and attitude of Ms Dzaba, saying "Our difficulty in approving her has to do with her attitude and temperament."
He said with such an attitude, the Minority members could not be assured that Ms Dzaba would come up with better policies to support the aged and children.
The Minority Leader said the Minority supported the approval of the other five nominees by consensus, but Ms Dzaba should be walked through by Majority decision.
Majority's responses
The Majority MPs argued that national service was not a mandatory requirement for a person to qualify for a minister, as there were some exemptions.
Speaking to journalists on the position of the Majority, the Majority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said the National Service Act was nebulous, and stressed the need for the Act to be looked at again.
He wondered why a person at a certain age should go for exemptions for national service.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said there were precedents in Parliament when people who had not done national service had been approved as ministers of state.
He mentioned the case of Mr John Oti Bless, the MP for Nkwanta North, who did not do national service but was approved as a deputy minister for Local Government and Rural Development by the Sixth Parliament, as an example.
On the description of former President as evil, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the members of the APC should have interrogated Ms Dzaba further to extract the real meaning of that description.
He said there might be other interpretations to the use of the word evil, but the Minority members had given it only one interpretation.
March 2009
In March 2009, Parliament by a vote of 117 to 106, approved the nomination of Mr Fifi Kwetey as a Deputy Minister- designate for Finance and Economic Planning.
A heated and prolonged debate heralded his endorsement, which saw the House going into a long voting procedure after the Minority had rejected a head count of members.
The Minority alleged that in the run-up to the 2008 elections, the nominee used his position as the Propaganda Secretary of the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), under the platform of a committee to set the record straight, to make several damning allegations against the then NPP government without evidence.
The Minority Leader then, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, insisted that the integrity of people nominated to hold public office should be established and that members of the House should be discerning and consider the interest of the nation by doing what was right and reject the nominee.
August 2016
Parliament suspended the approval of the Deputy Local Government Ministerial designate, Mr John Oti Bless.
The approval of Oti Bless was suspended because of unsavoury comments he was alleged to have made against the Chief Justice and other justices of the Supreme Court during a political talk show programme on Accra-based Montie FM.
After three months of sitting on thorns, Mr Bless’ nomination was approved in October 2016 after a vote.
