The Minority group in Parliament last Thursday had a sight taste of what their counterparts, who are currently in Government, faced whilst they were in opposition.
In a move akin to their previous “invasion” of Parliament during Presidential Sessional Addresses, operatives of the Bureau of Nation Investigations (BNI) last Thursday virtually sneaked into the foyer of the House and strategically planted themselves among the Minority group just before they entered the chamber for this year’s State of the Nation address. The Minority group, waiting in the foyer to be ushered into the chamber by the leadership of the house, immediately became jerky when they noticed the presence of the strange visitors in their midst.
The Reporter noticed that the MPs were tensed up and could not talk freely as they usually do. Some of the vocal ones even dreaded murmuring lest, as one of them said later, “we are recorded by the operatives of the BNI”.
In an interview with Minority Chief Whip, Hon Doe Adjaho, after the President’s State of the Nation address, he wondered if the BNI are now out to monitor the Minority members so directly as they did last Thursday. He said, “we are not against being monitored, but the way it is done is such that it turns into something else.”
According to the Minority chief Whip the presence of the two BNI operatives instantly caused panic among them and made them think that the BNI men were asked to spy on the as them as the President was coming to Parliament House.
On President Kufour’s State of the Nation address, Hon. Adjaho, who is the Member of Parliament for Avenor, said it contained no new initiatives as the President kept on repeating what he said in his two previous addresses. He accused the NPP government of lack of courage to impose sanctions against the former Northern Regional Minister, Prince Imoro Andani as stated in the government’s white paper on the Wuaku Report. He said, it is accepted that Mr Andani should not be charged for criminal negligence. But he was surprised that the NPP government has failed to implement recommendations in its own white paper.
The way the NPP government is handling the matter, he said, is encouraging culture of impunity where people will wilfully do the wrong thing and go scot-free. Hon. Adjaho said, the position adopted by the government on the fuel exposes their double standards and hypocrisy saying “now the President says the problem was due to under-pricing and not mismanagement as they earlier claimed.”
He also said, the President in 2001 told Ghanaians to be prepared to bite the bullet, which resulted in the increase of fuel prices by 64%, and now again he is telling Ghanaians to bite the bullet again after increasing fuel prices by about 100% over a two-year period.
