Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, believes that Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta will take a cue from the ordeal suffered over the past few weeks.
Between a censure motion from the Minority and a decision by the Majority to kick him out of office, Mr Bagbin is sure that Mr Ofori-Atta has picked lessons for the future.
Ghana is currently at the doors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a possible $3 billion bailout amidst intensifying hardship, skyrocketing fuel prices, a rising cost of living and a depreciating cedi. Ghanaians are reeling under this condition and have been calling for a pragmatic solution. The Minority MPs insist that Mr Ofori-Atta,
in this regard, has lost his grip on the country’s economy and must be axed. Beyond that, majority of NPP MPs in the House are pushing for his removal, triggering crunch-time interventions from the party caucus and President Akufo-Addo. With all these developments, the Speaker says Mr Ofori-Atta has learnt in a hard and unprecedented way. “As he sits here, he has learned a bitter lesson.
It is uncommon to come across members of your own party rise up in Parliament against your own minister. It’s uncommon,” he said on Sunday . Members of Parliament will this week debate the 2023 budget statement presented last week and the Speaker of Parliament has a warning for government. He cautioned government against using sheer bravado to push through their revenue measures, instead he thinks dialogue with the opposition may yield a common ground. The Speaker says anything other than this will lead to acrimony and conflicts which will not augur well for the economy.
