A Former Speaker of Parliament Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye has admitted that he could not deal with the issue of absenteeism among Members of Parliament successfully during his tenure in the 7th Parliament.
Although he attempted, he could not succeed in that action, he said.
Speaking in an interview with TV3’s Alfred Ocansey on the Ghana Tonight show on Wednesday November 9, Prof Oquaye said regarding the issues involving Dome-Kwabennya lawmaker Sarah Adwoa Safo and the two other absentee legislators, Kennedy Agyapong and Henry Quartey that “I must confess that that was one area I did not really succeed in absenteeism. I did not succeed in tackling it, I did not succeed in tackling punctuality. I did it a while and I stopped.”
He added “I did not succeed in ensuring that there was even a record of how Members voted. Members must vote in a certain direction…we had two former Members of Parliament contesting for President – Mahama and Akufo-Addo.
“Unlike America when Obama’s record was brought out as a Senator, we do not have that here. But it is also important to have these things because you want to know for example, if you want to be president, what is your record on women? Your record on oil.”
Regarding disagreements in Parliament, Prof Oquaye said the time will come where the two sides will have no option but to rely solely on consensus to get proceedings going in Parliament.
“A time will come when consensus will develop because there will be no alternative to consensus building,” he said while reacting to the move by the Minority to vote out the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
