I've A Lot Of Confidence In Current Majority Leadership, There'll Be A Compromise - Nana Akomea

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the State Transport Corporation (STC), Nana Akomea has reacted to calls for a change of the leadership of the Majority in Parliament.

There are calls for a new leadership of the NPP Majority following Friday's incident where the Majority staged a walkout during Parliamentary proceedings.

They stormed out of the Legislative House, refusing to cast their votes on the 2022 budget after a misunderstanding on whether or not the NDC General Secretary Johnson Aseidu Nketia should be present while voting took place.

They had earlier drawn the Speaker's attention to the NDC General Secretary's presence which they believed would compromise the voting because, according to the Afigya Kwabre North MP, Collins Adomako-Mensah, the Speaker had ordered the Minister of Finance to exit the chambers on grounds that he couldn't participate in the voting.

Hon. Adomako-Mensah revealed that, during the proceedings, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta asked permission from the Speaker to hold on with his judgement call on the budget giving reasons that he (Ofori-Atta) had taken notice of the varying opinions shared on the budget, so would like to hold a stakeholder consultative meeting before any decision could be made on it.

But the Speaker ignored the Minister's plea and went ahead to call for voting which attracted a response from the Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin, Hon. Collins Adomako-Mensah narrated.

''Our standing orders permit that when the Speaker makes that judgement call, you can challenge that judgement. So, Afenyo-Markin then stood up to challenge that judgement and called for a division. It was in the wake of the division that the Speaker said all those in the lobby, based on our standing orders, should exit. In fact, we, as a Majority, were not happy with how the Speaker behaved to the extent that he called the Marshall on the Finance Minister. 

''When the Speaker was giving the reasons for that, he said it's a voicenote, so if someone who won't engage in the voting is present, that person might add his voice. It can compromise the whole process, so they should exit. Then we saw some members of the NDC including the General Secretary of the NDC in the gallery. Now if you are sending people away saying the voice, it can be compromised and there is someone sitting in the gallery who, when you say all those in favor, can also add his voice; it was on that basis that we insisted that those also in the gallery should exit for fairness. That's where the confusion started because up and down, we walked out because there was a misunderstanding. That was how come we walked out'', he narrated.

According to Nana Akomea, it is ''early days'' for any person to call for a new leadership of the Majority.

He stated that he has confidence in the current leadership, so would hope for them to be given the benefit of the doubt.

''I have a lot of confidence in the leadership that they will rise to the occasion because they don't have any alternative. There is nothing like the Minority should say theirs for us to say ours. It's not there, so the only thing is to talk...I have every confidence that these are very intelligent people, experienced politicians. Kyei Mensah has been in Parliament from 1997; Haruna has also stayed for long. So, there will be a compromise'', he said on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo''.

 

 

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