The Majority in parliament could have used its numerical advantage to approve all ministerial nominees who were vetted by the Appointments Committee of parliament despite some concerns raised by the Minority, Mathew Nyindam, Member of Parliament for Kpandai, has said.
His comment follows the approval of eight out of the first 13 ministerial nominees who have been vetted by the committee. The report on the remaining five is expected to be put before the house for consideration soon.
The Minority in parliament has raised issues with two of the nominees. The Minority insists Senior Minister-designate Yaw Osafo Marfo and Energy Minister-designate Boakye Agyarko have a few questions to answer.
However, speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Friday January 27, Mr Nyindam, who is also First Deputy Majority Chief Whip, said: “Yesterday we were able to approve eight of nominees and by close of today (Friday January 27), we will be able to approve the remaining.”
“This time, on the part of the NPP side of parliament, we don’t want to do what we say ‘Minority will have their say but the Majority will have their way’. We don’t want to go on that path at all because we feel that the country belongs to all of us and so we shouldn’t bulldoze our way through.
“We have 159 members forming the majority in parliament and we can do whatever we want to do, but that is not the way forward. The Minority expressed interest that the other two needed to be cleared before their approval, so we thought that we are a House and so if they have some reservations we should give them the opportunity to clear those doubts before the passage.
“We are just waiting and by the close of today, God willing, I am very sure that the House will sit down and this approval will be given.”
On his part, Ahmed Ibrahim, Member of Parliament for Banda and First Deputy Minority Chief Whip, said on the same programme: “It is important for both sides of the vetting committee to unanimously approve your nomination. When that happens, it is an indication that that person is very credible, but if the committee is divided due to one or two issues, hence no consensus on the approval, it may send a wrong signal especially to the international community.
“And so this vetting process is a very serious exercise that requires special scrutiny of the nominees and what they said during the vetting.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
