Commentary

Dome Kwabenya MP, Adwoa Safo absence from Parliament controversy

By Bubu Klinogo a Journalist

There has been so much talk about the continuous absence of the MP for Dome Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo from Parliament. In the past couple of weeks, MPs from the Majority side, particularly MP for New Juaben South, Michael Okyere Baafi and the MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, have accused her of sabotaging and holding the government and party in Parliament to ransom. This is so because, in the current hung Parliament with both the NPP and the NDC having 137 seats at piece, requires that every member from the NPP side must be present in the House for the Party to have any chance of pushing through every government policy or decision that requires Parliamentary approval.

Madam Adwoa Safo, who was the Deputy Majority Leader in the last Parliament was relieved of her position in Parliament and replaced with MP for Efutu, Alexander Afenyo-Markin. Adwoa Safo was however made a Minister responsible for Gender, Children and Social Protection during this second term of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

From the onset, Adwoa Safo appeared to be happy with her new Portfolio. However, things appeared to have turned sour when her decision to terminate the appointment of Mrs. Gertrude Quashigah as the boss of the Ghana School Feeding program was overturned and Mrs. Quashigah was reinstated by a higher authority. Did that bruise the egos of AdwoaSafo?

What followed was a request for a leave of office tendered by Adwoa Safo and granted by the President. The Majority NPP has been struggling to cope with her absence. When the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta last year presented the Budget statement and economic policy of the government for this year and announced the introduction of the 1.75% levy on electronic transactions/transfers, she was needed badly in the vote to approve the budget. Because of her absence, the majority staged a walkout, but rather accused the speaker of bias, just to arrest the vote. The minority however went ahead to vote and rejected the budget. If there is any reason why the E -Levy has not been passed or tabled again for consideration by Parliament, it is largely due to the absence of Adwoa Safo. The Minority had made this point on several occasions but the Majority disputed it on each occasion. However, the Majority side is now beginning to accept the reality. They are beginning to speak up and calling out Adwoa Safo. MP for Assin Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, who campaigned for her vigorously during the last primaries, when she was on the verge of losing to Michael Oquaye Jnr, has disclosed that Adowa Sarfo is holding the party to ransom. He says the party must call her bluff and sack her from the party and get the seat declared vacant. The 1992 Constitution, Article 97(1c) and the Standing Orders of Parliament, particularly Orders 16 and 17 are very clear that MPs must attend parliamentary sittings regularly. The law says an MP must not absent himself or herself from 15 sittings in a meeting without a written permission from the Speaker and anyone who breaches this provision risks his or her seat being declared vacant by the Speaker.It is clear from the records, the votes and proceedings, which is parliament’s official record of attendance and major happenings in parliament show that AdwoaSafo has been absent (without permission) since the beginning of this meeting. What it means is that she has been absent without written permission of the Speaker for more than 15 days and is clearly in breach of the constitution and the standing orders. The law requires that in this situation, she be referred to the Privileges Committee to justify why she was absent and when she fails to give a reasonable justification, the Committee may recommend her seat to be declared vacant. From the look of things, it does not appear that the Majority NPP can get the support of at least 45 NDC MPs to remove Adwoa Safo from Parliament.

Indeed, Adwoa Safo’s conduct is playing into the game plan of the NDC. Her continuous absence means NDC is able to block the approval of the E-Levy. It is also significant to note that it is going to be a secret balloting and Adwoa Safo has very good friends within the Majority who may not vote against her. It remains to be seen if the Privileges Committee can summon Adwoa before it, when the Committee has not dealt with an earlier case involving Kennedy Agyapong himself. The other option which the party is considering is to dismiss her from the party with the thinking that if she loses her membership of the party, she ceases to be a member of parliament on the ticket of the party and her seat will be declared vacant. The Constitution states that an MP shall lose her seat if leaves the party on whose ticket she was elected into parliament to join another Party or she chooses to remain in Parliament as an independent candidate. Many lawyers and analysts believed the Speaker’s decision was wrong. In this particular case, we have an “NDC” Speaker of Parliament who will not kowtow to the “whims and caprices” of the NPP and therefore it will be difficult to get Speaker Bagbin to declare Adwoa Safo’s seat vacant because the party has sacked her. The question Mr. Bagbin will most likely ask himself is did Adwoa Safo voluntarily leave the NPP? If the answer is No, which it is, then her seat cannot be declared vacant because the operative word in the constitution is “if she leaves the party to join another”.

Or maybe, the party may wait when Speaker Bagbin travels and one of his deputies is in the chair, then they try and push this through? Do speakers have the power to take such critical decisions in the absence of the Speaker? Can the second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Asiamah support such a move in view of what he himself went through? But there again, even if she is successfully removed from Parliament, there ought to be a bye-election and polls have suggested that, if a bye-election is conducted there within this period, the opposition NDC is more likely to win the seat for a number of reasons. Adwoa Safo’s father, Apostle Safo Kantanka has a lot of influence in the Constituency. Most of these people plus Adwoa’s own supporters may either boycott the election or vote for the NDC candidate. In the extreme, Adwoa might even stand as an independent candidate and split the NPP votes, all of which will work to the advantage of the NDC. In each case, the NPP is in a fix! Putting everything together, AdwoaSafo will most likely remain in Parliament but will definitely not return to the next parliament. She is also most likely to be relieved of her ministerial appointment. By now, Mike Oquaye Jnr is running as the next Parliamentary Candidate of the NPP for the Dome Kwabenya constituency. But this is politics, anything can happen!!