Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Dr Rasheed Draman, has revealed that absenteeism by members of parliament makes governance and parliament lose a lot of relevance in the country.

According to him, although defining a timeframe within which an MP can absent himself might be difficult, it shouldn’t be for “almost a year”, as is the case of Adwoa Safo. He noted that even in organizations if a staff become affected by ill-health, there’s a period within which the organisation finds a replacement for the employee.

Dr Draman indicated that if government doesn’t call the MP for Dome-Kwabeya, Adwoa Safo, to order, it might be “cited for being discriminatory” if another member is found in the same predicament. He emphasized that parliament needs to be tough on the issue of absenteeism.

“This cannot continue forever and it makes our parliament and our governance system lose a lot of relevance. It looks like we are demonstrating that we don’t have clearly defined structures and systems of dealing with issues like this.
“If we do not have, I think this is a test case and we need to use this as an example to set these rules very clearly. Because I believe this is not the first time and if parliament doesn’t handle this properly, then tomorrow, when it’s the turn of someone else, people will be referring to this bad precedent that has been set…”
Dr Draman

Representation of the people in parliament

Commenting on the privileges committee summons to Adwoa Safo to appear before the committee on July 6, Dr Draman expressed that in her case, it is a “test case for the privileges committee” and for parliament because over the years, the “weakest link” in the country’s democratic setup is the issue of representation.

He stated that unlike many other jurisdiction, in Ghana, there’s no way of checking representation apart from the member showing up in parliament and representing the people.

“I think we have to make a distinction here; she has two roles she plays as a minister and as an MP. The President can grant her permission to be absent from her job as a minister of state but when it comes to parliament, I think it’s a different story altogether… We have situation here where the honourable member has been absent and I believe that this can only happen in Ghana and we are dancing around legalities.”
Dr Draman

The Executive Director for ACEPA highlighted the fact that the Dome-Kwabenya legislator is all over social media and the news, yet, “she does not know that the privileges committee wants to talk to her”. Describing the situation as baffling, he iterated that it makes “our parliament to lose its relevance”.

To this end, Dr Draman revealed that it’s very important the leadership of parliament takes the matter very seriously. He insisted that parliament must have a “cut-off point where all these drama” and back and forth must stop.

“The people need to be represented, the honourable member needs to show up; she needs to be in parliament and she needs to do her work.”
Dr Draman

In other jurisdiction, Dr Draman emphasized that the MP would do the honourable thing if her duties of balancing family and her official duties are becoming untenable by tendering in her resignation. He indicated that it would not pose much problem if it’s for a short period of time.

“… This raises a much bigger issue, we have a health system in Ghana and the politicians are the ones supposed to fix this health system so that all of us when we are sick, will stay here and be attended to by the health system… If she was in Ghana and her son is being taken care of by our health system here, she can still do her duties as a member of parliament…”
Dr Draman