Opinions of Tuesday, 1 November 2022

Columnist: Onipayede Ossom Teye

Our parliamentarians are using Ken Ofori-Atta as scapegoat

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta

Parliamentarians calling for Ken's sack is ridiculous, if not to cover rots then they should know better. The 1992 constitution mandates the president to nominate (propose) persons to various ministries and also mandates parliament to vet and approve (assign) those persons to the higher offices of ministries. Every ministry including finance is under a certain committee in parliament, which take oversight or serve as a watchdog to the ministries. When parliamentarians or their committee find any minister who is not performing well, article 82 is clear on how he/she can be removed from office by parliament, clause 4 states that the said minister is entitled to be heard in defense during the 14 days debate in clause 3, the vote of censure in clause 5 determine everything, if it's against the said minister the President revokes his appointment unless the minister resigns. The best for Ghanaians is to hear Ken Ofori-Atta's defence if not performing well as claimed by groups of parliament, to know whether that poor performance is influenced by the finance committee in parliament, the presidency, his own mismanagement, or any other things. The dust will settle now and protect us from similar future accuracy if we go by article 82, but a press conference to call on the president to single-handedly sack a minister of state is unconditional, can cover rots, and will call for more rots in the future. Unfortunately, this is coming from members of parliament who are supposed to know better to defend the constitution. I hereby call on the Legislatures to come again and do what will benefit Ghanaians but not for their interest alone. God bless our Homeland Ghana.