I.C. QUAYE REMAINS A LIAR! ... Approval or no approval

Palaver -- PARLIAMENTARY approval or not, Sheikh I. C. Quaye, Greater Accra Regional Minister, still stands accused as a liar.

According to the Sheikh, he obtained his Cambridge School Certificate in 1958.

That was after his claim, that he obtained the certificate on the completion of a course at Cambridge University had been disclaimed by the institution.

In the latest development, an official of the West African Examinations Council, in an interview, has confirmed that by 1958, the Cambridge School Certificate had been replaced by the West African School Certificate, commonly referred to as "School Cert."

Cambridge only collaborated with the newly-formed West African Examinations Council, as external examiners, prior to the recruitment of local examiners.

Before then, the London Matriculation (LM) Examination had been replaced by the General Certificate of Examination, mostly taken by private students.

According to the official one had to pass the English language, as a compulsory subject, for one to pass the examination, even with the least grade.

The official challenged the 'down-trodden" Minister to an open confrontation at anytime, anywhere to prove his case.

Meanwhile, a member of staff of this newspaper, who passed out from Secondary School in 1956, has confirmed that he did, indeed, obtain the West African School Certificate, (and not Cambridge), which was the examination for final students (form five), before entering the sixth form, which required another entrance examination.

Meanwhile, legal experts, armed with this information, are "putting their heads together" to find out whether one can initiate action against the Sheikh, for lying on oath, be it inside or outside Parliament.

Stop The Vetting Exercise

... It's Waste Of Time

-- Public Opinion

TWO young men, an auto-mechanic and a taxi-driver, walked into the offices of the 'Ghana Palaver' with a message to Parliament.

"Please, our Honourable Members of Parliament, preserve your dignity, by listening to the people, who put you there and scrap the whole Vetting Exercise. It is a waste of time," read a note in their hands.

Pressed on to explain the cause of their action, the two, Joseph Ankomah, the auto-mechanic and Franklin Djan, the taxi-driver, said they felt it would be in the President's own interest to keep the background of his Ministers, out of public focus, instead of exposing them to ridicule, before eventually being approved to take office.

"We all watched the proceedings at the Parliamentary Vetting Committee and could discern the truth from falsehood," they said, adding: "Although some excelled themselves, with unblemished record, the question marks, facing others, are still there, not in anyway removed, parliamentary approval or no approval".

The visit of the boys came as no surprise, since the events in Parliament, last Thursday had received mixed feelings from the public.

The views expressed above reflects the general thinking of many Ghanaians, including even quite a number of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in leadership positions, who think the collusion course the NPP MPs are taking against the people, in an attempt to undermine the Constitution, very early in the day, an act which does not augur well for the advancement of peace and democracy in Ghana.

Most callers to "FM" stations on the issue had felt the whole vetting process had turned out to be an exercise in futility.

However, somethick-headed NPP followers still don't care, since they thought any rejection of the nominees, constituted an affront to the President.

So, to them, the NPP Parliamentarians placed the party's interest first, in taking their decision.

Surprisingly, all the three Ministers, whose appointment evoked strong public resentment, plunged into weekend "celebrations", on their victory over their "enemies".

Organized receptions were held for the three, who, really had gone through an unexpected ordeal.

The question that remains is how the Ministers would feel in their own positions, with their conscience, as their own judge.

The Parliamentary Ministerial Vetting Committee is not technically a constitutional provision.

The constitutional requirement was merely that of seeking a Parliamentary approval for such nominees.

But, since it would look odd for candidates to appear before Parliament, as a whole, the House decided to appoint such a committee, whose report would help Parliament, as a whole, to take a collective decision on candidates.