GRi in Parliament 23 – 01 - 2003

“Mr Speaker, should we debate your address?”

Parliamentary Press Corps extend goodwill message

Volta Region deserves a state university- Kedem

 

 

“Mr Speaker, should we debate your address?”

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 23 January 2003 - The Speaker of Parliament, Peter Ala Adjetey, on Tuesday avoided a precedent that would have amounted to numerous unfavourable interpretations.

 

He was asked by a member if the speech he delivered at the opening of the session could be adopted for debate by the House since it contained useful suggestions. The House is yet to be told when a Speaker had had his speech debated on the floor of Parliament.

 

Kosi Kedem, NDC-Hohoe South, had appealed for the debate because the Speaker had raised pertinent issues that rested on the running of the House and the response of Executive to its demands.

 

Adjetey said: "It would set a dangerous precedent however, if any member wish to quote any part of it, why not." He said the final decision lies with the Business Committee and he would not want to be personally involved.

 

Kedem said he had a genuine cause for raising the issue since the House would be better off if the Speaker's concerns were debated but the dictates of politics would not allow such a suggestion to be taken at the first throw.

 

During the last debate on the State of Emergency in Dagbon, he got Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor to make one of his most regrettable statements yet in the House. The Minister of Defence had cause to disassociate the present government from the Busia legacy when Kedem said there was a perception that a similar crisis happened under the Busia Administration.

 

Dr Addo-Kufuor later retracted the statement and declared his commitment to the Busia legacy. J.H. Mensah, Senior Minister, said the Dagbon crises happened in September 1969, under the National Liberation Council.

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Parliamentary Press Corps extend goodwill message

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 23 January 2003- Members of the Parliamentary Press Corps on Wednesday extended its good wishes and solidarity with the Speaker, Clerk and members of parliament and the government on the celebration of the decade of Parliamentary democracy in Ghana.

 

The Press Corps noted that the ten years of restoration of parliamentary democracy in the life of the country was indeed no mean achievement and all must indeed give thanks to the Almighty God for having favoured the country, taking into account the checkered history of the nation.

 

These were contained in a goodwill message signed on behalf of the Parliamentary Press Corps by Andrew Edwin Arthur, Acting Dean of the Corps in Parliament House today.

 

The message said indeed Parliamentary democracy has come to stay and members of the Press Corps were delighted to note that Parliament would remain committed to promoting the fundamental human rights and freedoms as enshrined in the constitution for the establishment of a just and free society.

 

The message also congratulated parliament for repealing the criminal libel law that has for long been a useful weapon in effectively gagging the press. "We would like to assure Parliament that the Press Corps would continue to communicate the views of the leadership and Members of Parliament responsibly to the general public".

 

The statement said the Press Corps prays that the New Year and the opening of the Third session of parliament should bring about fresh hope to Parliamentarians and the Press Corps in the strengthening of Parliament as the hub of democratic governance in the country.

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Volta Region deserves a state university- Kedem

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 23 January 2003- Kosi Kedem, Member of Parliament for Hohoe South (NDC), on Wednesday asked government to establish a University in the Volta Region to accelerate its development.

 

"All that this statement is asking for is that the acute in-balance in the geo-political distribution of state universities in Ghana should without delay be addressed." The member who delivered the first statement in the third session of the third Parliament based his arguments on historical antecedence.

 

"A careful historical analysis of the geo-political distribution of these universities is rather interesting and instructive. The University of Ghana is located in the former Gold Coast Colony. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is located in the former Northern Territories"

 

He said University College of Education is located in the former Gold Coast Colony while the Western University College is located in Former Gold Coast.

 

According to Kedem," the same statistics have also revealed that the Former Togoland under United Kingdom trusteeship later incorporated in the trans-Volta Togoland and now known as the Volta Region has no university allocated to it."

 

He said even when Ghana is reduced to into regions; Volta Region is one of the few regions without a university or a university campus. "The people of the Volta Region have always requested for this in-balance in the distribution of universities to be corrected. Unfortunately, successive governments since independence have ignored this genuine request."

 

He said the people know and appreciate the importance of university education and they would do everything possible to sustain a university if established. "The region has more than adequate qualitative human capital to man any university established in the Region.

 

Kedem said the absence of a University has resulted in the heavy drift of human capital to other parts of Ghana. Victor Gbeho, Independent Anlo, said such a University could specialise in hydrology and Chemical Engineering because of the Region's expansive salt fields and large water bodies.

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