In my previous article titled The 8th Parliament: A True Test of Ghana’s Democratic Fabric although not an Elijah, Jeremiah nor Isaiah of Ghana politics, I laid emphasis on the fact that the political composition of the 8th Parliament will bring to bare a lot of novel practices especially with regards to the formation of both Standing and Select Committees of the House. This prophesy so to say has come to pass. In the first time in Ghana’s Political history, there have been a newly adopted formula for composition of Committees which give both the Majority and Minority groups equal powers in numbers. This new formula was contained in the report of the Committee of Selection presented to parliament which was subsequently approved in accordance with Article 103 of the 1992 Constitution and order 151 of the Standing Orders of the House. Per the report, NPP and NDC caucuses have 10 and 13 members each on the Business and Appointment Committees of Parliament respectively.
It is now evident that with the newly adopted formula of formation of committees where both the Majority and Minority groups have equal representation, the euphoria that accompanied the declaration of the NPP with the Independent Candidate as the Majority group in Parliament ended up being much ado about nothing but just an exercise of self-aggrandizement. Indeed, Ghanaians are now going to witness a Parliament whose service and duties transcend categorization and groupings. A House now threading the path in practicality of Checks and Balance which is a tenet of Separation of Powers in the confirmation of Appointees and Designates of the Executive by the Legislature based on the composition of the Appointments Committee.
I take particular interest in the appointments committee because it is responsible for the recommendation or otherwise of persons nominated by the President for appointment as Minister of State, Deputy Minister, Member of Council of State, The Chief Justice and other Justices of the Supreme Courts and any other persons specified under the constitution or any other enactment. The current appointments committee is made up of 26 members including its Chairperson and splits equally between the Majority and Minority Groups . There have been reservations from certain proponents to the effect that the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament who chairs this committee does not have any voting rights even though he is a part of the numbers that make up the 13 of the NPP lead group and thus making their votes 12 which in effect gives the NDC group outright majority of 13 votes. With this, they advocate that the numbers should have been 26 with a chairperson with no voting rights, 13 members for the NPP lead Group and 12 for the NDC group. This in untenable because there won’t be any voting of approval of an appointee or designated individual as that lies outside the ambits of the committee.
With a careful look at Order 172(2) of the Standing Orders, it will be noticed that it explicitly stated that the power or mandate of the Appointments Committee only lies in making recommendations to parliament for either approval or rejection of nominees. The operative word is thus “RECOMMEND TO PARLIAMENT”. The committee has no power to reject or approve any Presidential Nominee, they only make recommendations in their report to parliament and be noted that parliament may adopt the Committee’s report or reject same. The Voting made mentioned of in Order 172(8) of the Standing Orders under which a nominee will be rejected if he or she fails to secure more than 50% approval votes applies to voting in Parliament Voting as a whole. It can thus be concluded that the final decision to approve or reject a nominee solely resides in parliament. It can thus also be concluded that partisan fanatics calling on their Party affiliate members on the committee to “reject or fail” some nominees when they appear before the Committee are only engaged in an exercise in futility and must be educated on the ambits in which the Committee operates.
Now that it has been established that irrespective of the composition in numbers of the Appointments Committee the powers to approve or reject solely lies with Parliament as a whole then it sufficed to say that the main drama is yet to unfold and we must be in anticipation of same. Let us not forget that the Majority Group has both the 1st and 2nd Deputy Speakers of Parliament as part of its numbers of lump of 138 seats. A snippet of the drama is when Rt. Hon Speaker A.S.K Bagbin intentionally decides to excuse himself from his duties on the day of approval or rejection of the Appointments Committees report. This means that the 1st Deputy Speaker who also doubles as the Chair of the Appointments Committee will be at the helm of Parliamentary Proceedings for the day. The brings the number on both sides of the aisle to 137 seats each. Now just imagine what will transpire when a Nominee needs to secure more than 50% of the votes (137+) especially when the members in the NDC caucus have already taken entrenched positions not to vote in favour of some minister designates whom they think acted not in ways that benefited them in the erstwhile government. We are really in for a rollercoaster four years between the Executive and Legislative arms of government and shouldn’t expect anything less short of drama, corporation and consensus building, especially in the Legislative front.
Moving forward, I am convicted that with the current political structure of parliament with the NPP lead majority group of 138 members and NDC Caucus of 137 members and based on the backdrop of the Standing Orders which make provisions that with the exception of certain individuals who can belong to at least 1 Committee, all other members must belong to at most 1 Committee; the composition of the yet to be formed and declared Committees will follow in same path as the Business and Appointments Committee with equal numerical powers of both groupings. An emphasis on the fact and reality check that the euphoria that erupted on the declaration of the NPP with the Independent Candidate as the Majority Group has no bearing on the numerical composition of the Committees of the House and was much ado about nothing.
This novel prevailing situation should be a great lesson to aspiring young politicians. They should never loose touch with the principle of service when they come into power/office. Neither should they think they are tin gods and leagues above their constituents and the good people of the nation at large. Electorates are now becoming more informed and complex species; for a clear message has been sent and the aftermath of this clear and resounding message from the good electorates which have resulted in the kind of parliament we have now should be a lesson to all governments and political parties especially for the next elections and the ones after it.
Alswel Annan
National President
PUSAG
