Former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has once again accused the Minority Caucus of joining the Akufo-Addo-led government’s ‘kabuki dance ensemble’ to deceive the Ghanaian people concerning the 2022 budget.
According to him, the Minority’s recent actions in Parliament have been a betrayal of the Ghanaian people and in clear contravention of their own rhetoric of holding the will of the people in high esteem.
He was referring to the Minority’s participation in committee meetings to approve the 2022 budgets for Ministries and Departments while stressing to the press that the 2022 budget statement has been defeated.
In his recent epistle, Mr Amidu stated: “But by the time the Speaker of Parliament was reported to have arrived in the country from his medical trip to Dubai, these same two Honourablemen quoted above [Haruna Iddrisu and Muntaka Mubarak] had led their side of Parliament in the consideration of the estimates for the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, and by 16th December 2021 had started actively participating in the approval by the plenary of Parliament of those estimates.
“Class FM for instance reported that: ‘Ghana’s parliament on Wednesday, 15 December 2021, approved the sum of GHS 921,843,000.00 for the services of the Ministry of Transport and its agencies to carry out their programmes and activities for the 2022 fiscal year ending 31 December 2022.
“The House has also approved the annual estimates totaling GHS575,970,000.00 for the services of the Ministry of Railways Development for the year ending 31 December 2022 instead of the required capital expenditure of GHS 2,520,033,185.00.
“In another development, the House has approved the sum of GHS574,856,000.00 in annual estimates for the services of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation for the year ending 31 December 2022.”
But according to Mr Amidu, the active participation of the Minority in considering and approving estimates while communicating to the public that the Caucus will challenge the approval of the 2022 budget is a clear act of deception.
He added that it was justified for the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu to have equated the Minority to a child who had lost a fight to another child adversary and threatens to call his parent.
He said, “In a typical “he who pays the piper calls the tune” fashion, the Majority Leader, who is a Minister of State, had the audacity to equate the Minority to a child who has lost a fight to another child adversary and threatens the adversary by saying that: “When my father comes you will see what he will do to you.”
“The Majority Leader in an interview granted to Citi Newsroom on the morning of 15th December 2021 made a riposte to the Minority Leadership when he stated that:
‘There are colleagues who said they were upset, but they are now together in committees considering estimates. If the budget is rejected, why are you together considering the estimates? How can you come back and say that we should go back and reject the budget? I think that will be taking us back. We should allow sleeping dogs to lie’,” he said.