The Executive Director of the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) has said that Members of Parliament (MPs) lack the moral courage to remove any Minister from office.
Dr Rashid Draman referenced the instance where Sarah Adwoa Safo, MP for Dome Kwabenya constituency and others absented themselves from Parliament beyond the stipulated period but have not been punished.
“About absenteeism, we saw what happened to Hon Adwoa Safo when the matter was referred to the Privileges Committee. Our Parliament does not have the guts or balls to remove any MP or Minister. Let us make it clear.”
He made this known in an interview on Newsnight.
His comments come after some MPs abandoned the debate on the 2023 budget and travelled to Qatar to watch the World Cup games.
According to him, nothing will be done to these ministers who are also MPs. Therefore, they do not care since their lives will not be affected.
“How do you absent yourselves from Parliament when you know the national budget is being debated…? They [MPs] do not care because their lives will not be affected…It looks like our leaders in this country are constantly insulting us, the citizens.”
The House is yet to vote on the censure motion that has been filed against Ken Ofori-Atta by the Minority in Parliament.
Article 82 of the 1992 Constitution states that the censure motion must be debated and voted on within 14 days after it has been filed but after 28 days since the motion was filed, it is yet to be debated and voted upon.
Dr Draman is doubtful if the censure motion would succeed. “In the Constitution, a censure motion should be done in 14 days and these leaders are the guarantors of our Constitution, but they are in violation of it and they think that there is nothing wrong.”
“The earlier we go back to the drawing board to look at our Constitution, the better,” he said.
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He noted that some provisions in the Constitution should be straightforward to prevent different interpretations and provide coherent meaning.
“We see excessive partisanship to the extent that I think some of the provisions in our Constitution would have to be written in mathematical formulas so that nobody would come and confuse anybody with any legal language or debate.”