The Minority in Parliament on Wednesday staged a walkout in protest against what it described as the First Deputy Speaker Bernard Ahiafor’s use of the Standing Orders to frustrate members of the caucus and undermine Parliament’s oversight role.
The walkout followed the Deputy Speaker’s decision to disallow supplementary questions posed by some Minority Members of Parliament to the Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, on the proposed SIM re-registration exercise.
Ahiafor ruled that the questions contravened the Standing Orders of the House.
Addressing journalists after the protest, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin accused the First Deputy Speaker of repeatedly using parliamentary rules to prevent Minority MPs, particularly backbenchers, from effectively scrutinising government policies.
“We have observed that the First Deputy Speaker has a way of using the rules to stampede parliamentary oversight,” he said.
“You’ve all observed that he started an attack on our backbenches. Any time our backbenchers had the opportunity to be on their feet, he would use the rules to frustrate them.”
Afenyo-Markin argued that the supplementary questions on the proposed SIM re-registration exercise were in the public interest and sought clarification on the cost and implementation of the policy.
He questioned the justification for a fresh registration exercise, noting that the Minister had already indicated it would come at no cost to subscribers.
“They claim that people use unverifiable identities to get SIM registration cards. Our question is, at what cost? How many people were identified to have used stolen IDs?” he said.
“It’s the interest of the Ghanaian public to know how much it is costing the nation. In any event, the previous registration came at a cost, so we need to know what procurement processes are being followed.”
The Minority Leader maintained that the Deputy Speaker had wrongly interpreted the Standing Orders, arguing that Rule 89(1) permits supplementary questions based on answers already provided by a minister for purposes of clarification.
“This is a government policy… and the rules under 89.1 allow you to anchor your supplementary question on an answer given by the Minister for the purpose of clarification,” he said.
Afenyo-Markin said the walkout was intended to register the Minority’s protest against what it viewed as the Deputy Speaker’s handling of proceedings.
“This is just our protest. We protested the posture of the First Deputy Speaker using the rules to frustrate us,” he said.
He, however, clarified that the Minority would return to the Chamber to participate in the remainder of Parliament’s business.
“We’re going back into the chamber to deal with other business. We protested his posture on this very matter, and that is it,” he added.
