Executive Director for Africa Center for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Dr Rasheed Draman, has expressed concern over proceedings in parliament yesterday, November 30, 2021, on the budget approval and the minority’s decision to subject subsequent parliamentary activities to voting.

According to him, he was “hopeful” about the outcome of the discussions that ensued between the two sides, with high expectations that they were both going to emerge winners. Although tabled concerns from the minority did not yield the desired results, Dr Draman noted that the finance minister may have to reconsider certain things so that both sides “can have some compromise position”.

“My worry is when I heard the minority say forget consensus, forget going forward, every matter is going to be subjected to a vote. That is something we have to take very seriously and we have to find a way of making sure that it doesn’t happen. Because if that is going to happen [and] we are not careful, we are going to have a lot of gridlocks in the country. I have seen parliaments that have been gridlocked for four years and nothing really happened”.
Dr Rasheed Draman

Dr Draman emphasized that it is the “ordinary citizens” who are likely to be at the receiving end of “policies” that are going to suffer. Thus, he underscored the need for the two sides to engage in some “serious conversations” on the way forward.

Consensus building in parliament

The ACEPA boss conceded to the fact that the finance minister erred in his belated attempt at negotiations with the minority over the budget. Despite his assertion, he intimated that with the minister conceding to his mistake, the minority could have equally “listened” to the minister at that point in the interest of building consensus.

“… Consensus has to be built on a continuous and on a daily basis. So, I like what I heard from the minister and his attempt and I hope that the minister will keep this spirit and continue to negotiate with the other side on a daily basis… What the two sides have to remember is the fact that when we have these disagreements… the investors are watching [and] the international community is watching”.
Dr Rasheed Draman

For a country which desires to have investors trickle in and “raise funds”, Dr Draman warned that, that might be a pipe dream if an enabling environment isn’t created.

“Nobody is going to bring his or her money in an environment that shows a lot of uncertainty. So, at the end of the day, there’s no one group that can get out of this as [a] winner. So, for me, I will go back to my point [that] the character of this parliament, numbers that we have, both sides must remember that they don’t have the numbers that they used to have in the 6^th and 7^th parliament…”.
Dr Rasheed Draman

Legalities, the ACEPA boss insisted, are not going to “win anything” for anybody and if the matter finds its way to the supreme court for instance, implementation of the budget which is to be effected on January 1, 2021 is likely to be delayed.