Research fellow at the Center for Democratic Development (CDD) – Ghana, and governance and democracy expert, Dr. John Osae-Kwapong, has commented on the minority’s boycott of the new Members of Parliament (MP) orientation, cautioning the ninth parliament against reflecting the divisions and chaos of the eighth.

The minority caucus’s decision to boycott the orientation exercise comes as a result of objections about the cost, expenses of the venue, and logistics, which it deems excessive.

“I keep wondering what to expect from the ninth parliament. I keep wondering whether there’s still a spillover effect from the way that things went in the eighth parliament. I used to think that the eighth parliament was a reflection of how closely divided parliament was”
Dr. John Osae-Kwapong, Research Fellow at CDD – Ghana

According to Kwapong, parliament has become overly unpredictable, and thus unreliable for smoothly carrying out its legislative functions. Such conditions cannot be allowed to progress further.

Especially when the eighth parliament was notoriously characterized with rampant chaos and disagreements over the slightest provocations.

Legislators ought to behave more decorously and hold themselves accountable for the mandate they have been entrusted with.

Pointing to the minority’s boycott, Osae-Kwapong tried to reconcile if there was perhaps a spillover of the unresolved tensions from the previous parliament into the new, fueling the same old disagreements and rivalries.

It appears the change in government seems to not have touched parliament, he keenly observed.

Except for power switching hands from the former NPP majority to the new NDC majority, everything else looks like business as usual, where fundamental differences have prevailed on every front.

“You still see signs of deep differences between the majority and the minority” he pointed out, arguing how impossible it would be for this parliament to look past the rivalries for meaningful collective decisions on more important matters.

Per his observations, there exists a valid fear of these parliamentary disagreements and tantrums becoming further entrenched in the workings of the ninth parliament, harming due parliamentary process.

The new majority would use their numbers as a basis to completely disregard the minority and bully them into silence.

A situation Osae-Kwapong described would not uphold the tenets of Ghana’s democracy, which allows minorities to register their displeasure for any “government business” that affects them.

Even though the opposite was the case under the former government’s regime, he noted that it should ideally have no place in any democracy.

After all, they are representatives and mouthpieces of the masses and should not be sidelined simply because they are a minority.

However, he also had reservations about the often patronized recourse actions of the new minority, the NPP, for addressing grievances in parliament. He hoped they were not intentionally weaponizing their position to the detriment of parliament’s collective effort.

“I also don’t think that some of these tactics – whatever is motivating the minority to engage in them should also become a political strategy to be disruptive to the governance process”
Dr. John Osae-Kwapong, Research Fellow at CDD – Ghana

Amicable Resolution

Osae-Kwapong proposed candid dialogue as the way forward. It is his opinion that a well engaged conversation between Hon. Mahama Ayariga and Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markins, the majority and minority leaders of both caucuses in the ninth parliament, would establish understanding and prompt a ceasefire.

The concessions from such “an honest conversation”, as he referred to it, would bring “their individual caucuses” under control.

“At least for me, we can’t afford this to drag through the entire life of the ninth parliament,” he said, stressing the need to bring both sides to the peace table immediately.

Failure to fix the rift between the NDC and the NPP in parliament could spell greater fallouts on issues of greater severity and consequence than the orientation of the MPs, matters of national interest, which would derail the government’s progress and development.

Consequences of Boycott

Speaking of consequences, parliamentary development practitioner Sammy Obeng, highlighted possible outcomes of the minority’s decision to not participate in the three-day orientation for the new MPs.

“So I’m looking at what will be the implications on members of parliament within the caucus who refuse to attend this. Would it be that later on, there will be another orientation for the minority members? Or would parliament decide that orientation is done and that is it?”
Sammy Obeng, Parliamentary Development Practitioner

He mentioned that should the latter be the case, an absolute lack of training for the minority’s MP’s would leave them vulnerable to the technicalities of parliamentary proceedings and duties.

“These decisions must be taken with some of these future intentions in mind,” he said of the boycott, and its potential disadvantage to participants.

Sammy Obeng also cautioned the majority to not act in excess, but instead consider the fair objections of the minority, especially with decisions pertaining to procurements and logistics as is the case here.