Budget 2022: MPs Kill Ghana’s Democracy, As Majority Stage Coup D’état Splitting Ghana In Two

MPs of the ruling New Patriotic Party on Tuesday staged a coup on Parliament, overthrowing the legislature’s sovereign decision to reject Ken Ofori-Atta’s contentious 2022 budget.

Consequently, Ghana has been thrown into two states where one will be adhering to the 2022 budget, while the other would not, because last week, one side of the legislature constitutionally rejected it under the oversight of the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin.

However, today, Tuesday, November 30, 2021, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) waited for the Speaker to be flown out of the country for a medical check-up to reverse the official decision of Parliament to reject the budget.

Led by Joe Osei Wusu, the NPP’s MP for Bekwai who doubles as the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, a rogue Parliament consisting of only NPP MPs decimated Ghana’s democratic foundation by reversing the rejection of the budget.

During the one-sided decision, none of the NDC MPs were in the lawmaking chamber in a reminiscent of a similar instance last week when the NPP parliamentarians, save for one of them, staged a walkout when they realized they did not have the numbers to counter those of the Minority NDC which had vowed to reject the budget because of its draconian content, including the widely condemned introduction of an e-levy to further burden poor Ghanaians out of the digital economy at the expense of the rich.

“This House has approved the budget statement and economic policy of the government for the year ending 31st December 2022, subject to the concessions given by the Finance Minister.,” Joe Osei Wusu announced after a treasonous second sitting on the budget that had been rejected.

Many are concerned that the Akufo-Addo government posture is posing a grave danger to the democracy and peace of Ghana by its blatant decimation of constitutional processes to have its way.

Joe Osei-Wusu who stood in for the substantive Speaker had made himself an arbiter and a party in Parliament when he counted himself to make up the 138 required for a decision of such magnitude to meet the requirement that the plenary in the 275-member parliament should exceed half (137 members) before a motion can be passed.

Last week Friday, under the supervision of Speaker Bagbin, there were also 138 parliamentarians, mostly from the Minority NDC side in the Chamber.

The reversal of the earlier rejection of the budget has thrown the lawmaking chamber into a perpetual stalemate because there is a possibility that if the Speaker returns, the dubious decision by the Majority NPP can be reversed once more because the country is currently operating a hung parliament, with both the NDC and NPP having 137 MPs apiece. 

The NPP is reportedly relying on the stalemate to end up in the Supreme Court, which is packed full of individuals fingered as loyalists of the Akufo Addo government. 

However, a constitutional crisis is certainly going to arise when this happens as the principles of separation of power explicitly debar the Supreme Court from ordering Parliament on how it conducts its business 

 The Minority had earlier rejected the budget due to concerns over its impact on the already suffering Ghanaian among others, demanding that the proposed e-levy be suspended.

Also, they demanded the withdrawal of the Agyapa deal, provision for the victims of the tidal wave disaster in the Volta Region, restoration of the benchmark values of imports, and proper re-construction of the wording relating to the Aker Energy deal.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, addressing the treasonous parliament, said these concerns, “would be addressed and we would have established a budget that will build an entrepreneurial nation, resolved our unemployment problems and resolve our debt problems.”

It is not clear what the Minority intends to do in response to the treason perpetrated by the NPP MP.