Majority leadership lacks skills to build consensus - Adongo

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolgatanga Central, Mr Isaac Adongo, has stated that the inability of the government to push through its business in Parliament is due to a leadership crisis on the side of the Majority in Parliament.

“The Majority side has a leadership crisis and a leadership which is not suitable for such a hung Parliament. They are very combative and aggressive, with little opportunity for dialogue and consensus-building.

“And that is why they are struggling to push their business through,” he told the Daily Graphic in an interview.

Mr Adongo was responding to comments by the Deputy Majority Leader, Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, that the Minority was making government business difficult due to pressure from the NDC party.

Unfortunate

While describing the comments of Mr Afenyo-Markin as unfortunate, Mr Adongo said the leadership of the Majority in Parliament was not suitable to get government business running under the current parliamentary dispensation where both sides were equal in number.

“We owe it a duty to our constituents to perform our work dispassionately and to the best of our abilities. We also expect business in the House to comply with our Standing Orders,” he said.

E-Levy

Using the controversial Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) bill as an example, Mr Adongo, who is the Deputy Ranking Member of the Finance Committee in Parliament, said the committee completed work on the bill way back in December after it was presented.

He said the baffled at Minority was why the Majority wanted it to be passed under a certificate of urgency instead of allowing the bill to go through the normal processes.

“Their conduct subsequently showed that we were right in wanting it to be taken appropriately and to go through the various processes so that members can have time to scrutinise it.

“Subsequently, they have been touring the whole country to get inputs from Ghanaians, which shows that the urgency was not needed,” he pointed out.

Mr Adongo said the Minority was surprised that the government had since not brought back the E-levy for consideration and was, therefore, surprised anybody would think it was the Minority that was sabotaging government business.

“The Minority does not have a bill. It is the government that has a bill, so what is stopping them from bringing it back? The committee report is ready, so it is just a matter of having it go through second reading, consideration and passage,” he stated.

On whether the position of the Minority had changed on the E-levy, Mr Adongo said, “It is the position of the people we represent and not our position."