As a consequence of the turf war between the President and Parliament over the President’s decision to defer assent to the Anti-LGBTQ bill, the approval process for 8 Substantive Ministers and 11 Deputy Ministers has been on hold for more than a week.
A situation that has been described by some as a political crisis, ministries like Health, Gender among others are the worst affected because the ministers and deputies to hold these briefs have not attained the constitutionally required prior approval of parliament.
Tit-for-Tat?
The immediate trigger to this parliamentary action was the infamous “cease and desist” letter from the Executive Secretary of the President to the Parliament on the transmission of the same bill. Read the Speaker ‘The Parliament of Ghana will comply with the existing legal framework and reject the attempts by the Executive Secretary of the President, through his contemptuous letter, to instruct the Clerk to Parliament, an Officer of Parliament whose position is recognizable under the Constitution. We shall not cease and desist!
The Speaker provided substantiation for not allowing the approval of the Ministers and their deputies.
“Be that as it may, Hon Members, I also bring to your attention, the receipt of a process from the Courts titled Rockson-Nelson Etse K. Dafeamekpor vrs. The Speaker of Parliament and the Attorney -General (Suit no. J1/12/2024) which process was served on the 19th of March 2024 and an injunction motion on notice seeking to restrain the Speaker from proceeding with the vetting and approval of the names of the persons submitted by His Excellency the President until the provisions of the constitution are satisfied.
“Hon. Members in the light of this process, the House is unable to continue to consider the nominations of His Excellency the President in the “spirit of upholding the rule of law“ until after the determination of the application for interlocutory injunction by the Supreme Court,” he said.
The Constitutional Imperative
In a bid to resolve the matter at hand, the Supreme Court granted the Attorney- General’s request for an expedited hearing of the Injunction Application. The Apex Court dismissed the request to prevent the approval of the President’s nominees until the substantive matter is determined. With that hurdle cleared, Parliament can now consider the nomination of the ministers and deputy ministers designate. But how does that happen when Parliament is on recess till May.
As Parliament is on recess, a process has to be triggered to get the house back in session to approve these nominees. This is set out in Article 112 (3) of the Constitution.” Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, fifteen percent of members of Parliament may request a meeting of Parliament; and the Speaker shall, within seven days after the receipt of the request, summon Parliament.”
Order 53 of the Rules Book of Parliament gives similar indication as to the process required to trigger a recall of the House. 53. (1) Despite any other provision, fifteen per cent of Members of Parliament may request a meeting of Parliament and the Speaker shall, within seven days after the receipt of the request, summon Parliament. (2) Parliament shall convene within seven days after the issuance of the notice of Dissolution of Parliament (cf. article 113 of the Constitution).
In view of the numbers in Parliament, not less than forty-two signatures are required to get the speaker to recall the House for this business.
Precedent and Political Manoeuvering
This will not be the first time such a process will be triggered. In January 2014, 80 MPs from the then NPP Minority side, representing 39 per cent of the House, signed the request asking the Speaker to convene a special meeting for the debate of the motion calling on Parliament to authorize an investigation into issues surrounding the sale of Merchant Bank to Fortiz.
In January 2018, about 80 NDC Minority MPs signed a petition to recall the House ahead of time. A memo signed by Muntaka Mubarak and his counterpart from North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, requested the House to take urgent action regarding a bipartisan probe into the involvement of the Trade Ministry in the collection of between $15,000 and $100,000 from expatriate businesses to secure them a seat at the table of President Akufo-Addo at an awards ceremony on December 8, 2017.
If the house is constituted to approve the nominees, a skillful display of parliamentary collaboration and cross-party support will be required. This is because, with the demise of late Ejisu MP, Dr John Kumah, the Majority and Minority have the same number of MPs. A vote that results in a tie will be deemed as lost.
With just a simple majority required to pass the Ministers and Deputy Ministers designate, the job of the government whips and the opposition benches is clearly cut out.
By Duke Mensah Opoku
