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- Hon. Speaker, I stand before you today with deep gratitude for the opportunity to address this Honourable House for the very last time in the life of this 8th Parliament.
- It is indeed a privilege to be able to share these final moments with you as we bring this historic Parliament to a close.
- It goes without saying that the journey we have shared over the course of this 8th Parliament has been long, eventful, and filled with moments both challenging and rewarding.
- It should be recalled that both sides of the aisle changed leadership in the course of the life of this Parliament.
- On behalf of colleagues, we pay tribute to the leadership which started this journey:
- Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu – Former Majority Leader
- Haruna Iddrisu – Former Minority Leader
- James Klutse Avedzi – Former Deputy Minority Leader
- Muntaka Mubarak- Former Minority Chief Whip
- Every chapter of this journey has been marked by its own twists, turns, highs and lows. But in the end, the NDC Minority delivered and lived up to expectation of the people.
- As we reflect on these years, we are reminded of the truth that all things, both good and difficult, have a beginning and an end.
- Speaker, as we draw the curtain on this distinguished Parliament, we cannot help but give thanks to the Almighty God for His guidance and grace throughout our tenure. His hand has carried us through every storm and challenge.
- We also extend our sincere appreciation to you, Rt. Hon. Speaker, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin for your exemplary leadership and unwavering direction.
- You come after a long tradition of competent Speakers. However, none of your forebears were burdened with a hung Parliament such as yours.
- You were the first Speaker elected from a party that is not in government. But you were well prepared for it, from your days as a Minority Leader, as a Majority Leader, and as a Deputy Speaker.
- Your wisdom, patience, and calmness, even under pressure, have been an anchor for this House, especially during times of turbulence.
- Your ability to manage this Parliament with fairness, even in the most challenging circumstances, has made you an outstanding statesman.
- To the members of the NDC Minority Caucus, that briefly became the Majority Caucus, I express my profound gratitude for the support and cooperation that I, along with my colleagues in leadership, received from you over the past two years.
- Together, we have achieved numerous milestones, and I am confident that history will be kind to us for our collective efforts.
- At the stroke of midnight, the NDC Caucus will re-enter this Chamber with the strength of an unprecedented two-thirds (2/3) majority.
- This, I believe, serves as a timely reminder to the political class, that the people of Ghana reward hard work, dedication, and true love for country.
- Hon. Speaker, this 8th Parliament has indeed been historic in many respects. For the first time under the Fourth Republic, we witnessed a Parliament that was evenly split, with each of the two political parties securing 137 members.
- We also saw 40 female Members of Parliament, equally distributed across the two political parties.
- One independent member who serves as the 2nd Deputy Speaker, and a Speaker who hails from the opposition. This, in every sense, gave us the first hung Parliament of the Republic of Ghana.
- Honourable colleagues, let us be proud to be part of this historic parliament.
- From the very start, the stage was set for a roller-coaster journey, particularly during the election of the Speaker.
- That fateful night kept the nation on edge, with many fearing for the safety of our democracy.
- The events that unfolded, climaxed by the regrettable and unwarranted military invasion of this august House, will remain a blot on Ghana’s democratic history.
- We pray that such a moment is never repeated.
- Yet, Mr. Speaker, from that dark night emerged a bright dawn—a new Parliament under a Speaker who is not from the ruling party. The first of its kind in Ghana’s history.
- Despite facing significant challenges, this House has remained steadfast, navigating many turbulent waters, including certain actions by some members that sought to undermine the independence and authority of Parliament as a co-equal branch of government.
- While many hoped that this Parliament would usher in a new era of collaboration for the national good, some feared that it would deepen political divisions.
- Nonetheless, I can confidently say that the NDC Caucus has consistently upheld the supreme national interest in everything we did.
- At every turn, we have been guided by one principle: to do what is right for the people of Ghana.
- Every policy or action of the government that we criticized, we complemented with superior, constructive, alternative proposals.
- Although our views were often ignored, time has proven that many of the positions we took on critical national issues were correct.
- One of the most significant and fierce debates we witnessed in this Parliament was the protracted struggle over the Electronic Transfer Levy Bill (E-Levy).
- The NDC Minority stood firmly with the people of Ghana against this unpopular tax, while our colleagues on the other side supported it.
- Despite the strong resistance from within and outside this chamber, the E-levy was foisted on Ghanaians.
- Speaker, we raised alarms about the multitude of new taxes imposed on Ghanaians—over 40 in total—that burdened the people and stifled businesses.
- At the same time, we witnessed proposals to grant over $450 million in tax exemptions to crony businesses.
- In the spirit of patriotism, we demanded justification for these requests, especially as Ghanaians continued to suffer from extreme hardship.
- Speaker, posterity will surely vindicate our warnings regarding the reckless borrowings and economic mismanagement under the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government.
- Records available to this House show that some individuals in government profited to the tune of GHS 159.3 million in transaction advisory fees, while the country was saddled with an unsustainable debt burden.
- We also spoke out against the mismanagement of our central bank, which led to a negative equity of GHS 55.1 billion in 2022 and cummulative losses of GHS 71.3 billion in 2022 and 2023.
- As a result, the Bank of Ghana became policy insolvent by end 2023.
- The illegal printing of money by the Bank of Ghana to finance government spending contributed significantly to the inflationary crisis that saw over 850,000 Ghanaians falling into extreme poverty.
- Management of the central bank also illegally wrote off a colossal GHS48 billion of government’s indebtedness without parliamentary approval in blatant disregard for the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).
- At the height of this crisis, the management of the central bank supervised the award of questionable contracts for the construction of a new ultra-modern head office at a cost that has now risen to over $250 million and an ultra-modern Governor’s residence at a cost that is unknown to the public.
- Our concerns about the mismanagement of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) like COCOBOD, ECG, GIHOC, STC, PBC and others were also ignored.
- For seven consecutive years, COCOBOD recorded losses of over GHS11 billion, and cocoa production declined drastically under the current government from 1 million metric tonnes to about 400,000 metric tonnes .
- For the first time in 32 years, international banks rejected COCOBOD’s request for a syndicated loan to finance the purchase of cocoa.
- Hon. Speaker, we cannot be silent about our opposition to yet another unpopular government policy, the Import Restrictions Regulations, 2023.
- This detested proposed Legislative Instrument (L.I.) sought to vest unfettered and unchecked powers in the hands of the Minister of Trade to determine who qualifies to import into the country certain products.
- Similarly, we on this side raised red flags over the dubious Finance Ministry/SML-induced $100 million a year contract for so-called revenue assurance.
- After initial feet dragging and refusal by President Akufo-Addo to release the KPMG audit report, it finally emerged that SML was paid a whopping GHS1.4 billion for no work done.
- The Ghana Revenue Authority further failed to withhold taxes worth GHS13.38 million from these payments. As we speak, that entity called SML is still ripping off the taxpayer for no work done.
- Hon. Speaker, we on this side expressed several concerns over the government’s handling of the illegal mining menace that has engulfed our nation.
- We are on record to have cautioned that its pretentious fight against this existential threat to our collective survival will soon have dire consequences for all of us.
- Amid this façade of a fight, high-ranking government and NPP party functionaries were accused by the then Cabinet Minister responsible for environment, Prof. Frimpong Boateng of promoting and engaging in illegal mining.
- Galamsey later became a free-for-all enterprise involving MMDCE’s and other party functionaries.
- The record will bear us out that we on this side called for an honest and responsive approach to this menace founded on strict application of the law, no matter whose ox is gored. Again, our concerns were ignored.
- The scale of corruption and waste during this period has been staggering, alarming and heart wrenching.
- Yet, Mr. Speaker, the more we on this side spoke out, the more corruption and wastage festered, prompting the Catholic Bishops Conference to decry what they described as “massive uncontrolled corruption”.
- Scandals became a daily occurrence as we were treated to blatant abuse of office and plundered the public purse.
- Misuse of Covid-19 funds, the malfeasance that characterised the 13th African Games, the GHS500 million National Service ghost names scandal, the brazen attempts to shell-out state hotels to a cabinet minister and the free-for-all grabbing of state lands are but a few of recent scandals that were highlighted and brought to public attention by the NDC Minority.
- Speaker, we also had to contend with the erosion of the independence of critical state institutions. Many of these institutions were filled with partisan elements who undermined due process to please the regime in power.
- Journalists who exposed corruption were subjected to brutal crackdowns, and dissenting voices were silenced.
- Speaker, the insistence of the Electoral Commission of Ghana to adopt the Ghana Card as the sole document for the registration of voters, even though millions of Ghanaians were yet to be issued their Ghana Cards by the National Identification Authority, cannot escape mention.
- After eventually yielding to the resistance of the gallant NDC Minority Caucus once again, the Electoral Commission decided to conduct voter registration solely at its district offices instead of designated polling stations.
- But for our voices which were heard loudly on these matters, the Electoral Commission would have succeeded in denying millions of Ghanaians their right to register and vote.
- The Electoral Commission was once again forced to beat a retreat on its unpopular decision to outlaw the use of indelible ink during the 2024 general elections.
- In all of these instances, our vigilance and insistence on accountability saved our democracy.
- Hon. Speaker, the past eight years have taught all of us a lesson on how not to govern a country or how not to run an economy.
- In the end, the crushing defeat the New Patriotic Party (NPP) suffered in the just-ended election is a clear message from Ghanaians that they will not tolerate such levels of poor governance and mismanagement.
- It is deeply concerning that those who oversaw such disastrous performance in government would have the audacity to adorn themselves with accolades to the chagrin of Ghanaians.
- Hon. Speaker, at a personal level, I have had to pay a heavy price for my stand against the government’s mismanagement.
- My recent prosecution or call it persecution by the Attorney-General over frivolous and trumped-up charges was calculated to silence, intimidate and completely extinguish a known dissenting voice.
- My crime, Mr. Speaker, was that I sounded the alarm bells on an economy that was being mismanaged and ruined by the acts and omissions of a select few.
- The fact that my prosecution began in the wake of the tussle over the E-levy should not be lost on anyone that I became an instant target for the regime.
- I was charged on Christmas eve, a few days after the rejection of the E-Levy and the 2022 budget.
- From that point, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, in whom the prosecutorial power of the state is vested was determined to employ all crude tactics, including the use of subterfuge to achieve his ends of malicious prosecution just to satisfy the regime.
- The whole world witnessed how a supposed Minister of Justice set out to coach, cajole and coerce another accused person standing trial together with me to falsify his testimony and skew it in such a manner as to enable him to procure a conviction against me at all cost.
- In the process, Godfred Yeboah Dame, who is the principal legal officer of the state, engaged in crimes such as witness tampering, conspiracy against an accused person, fabrication of evidence to pervert the course of justice and professional misconduct contrary to the ethics of the very legal profession he leads.
- I believe this has been the story for many other Ghanaians during this period.
- Never in the history of our nation have we witnessed this level of gross professional misconduct on the part of no less a person than the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice who is the leader of the Bar and bears a high responsibility to adhere to the rules of ethics of the legal profession.
- Speaker, I am not against prosecution of wrongdoing.
- Whilst our democracy is founded on the rule of law and holding public officers accountable, I pray, that never again should any of our citizens become a victim of this level of injustice and abuse of prosecutorial power that I was subjected to.
- Despite this painful experience, I count it all as part of the hazards of politics and service to our people.
- As the clock strikes midnight, a new chapter begins. To those returning to the 9th Parliament, congratulations.
- To colleagues who will not be part of the 9th Parliament, I urge you to walk with your heads held high.
- Ghana appreciates your service, and your contributions are still very much needed.
- I look forward to a 9th Parliament characterized by mutual cooperation, diligence, and hard work in pursuit of the aspirations of our people.
- At this juncture, let me thank the gallant 137 members of the NDC Caucus on behalf of the NDC Minority Leadership.
- Special thanks goes to:
- Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah
- Governs Kwame Agbodza
- Ahmed Ibrahim
- Comfort Doyoe
- Chairpersons and ranking members from the NDC Caucus
- The backbench of the NDC Minority Caucus
- Colleagues, aside our disagreements, there were moments of cooperation across the aisle. I want to use this opportunity to thank all members of the 8th
- To the parliamentary service, thank you for your hard work.
- To the parliamentary press corps, what could we have done without you. You have been amazing. Thank you.
- Fellow countrymen and women, thank you for enduring the worst government Ghana’s history!
- Do not be despaired. There is hope!
- God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong.
- Speaker, I thank you.
The post Full text: Remarks by Cassiel Ato Forson during dissolution of the 8th Parliament first appeared on 3News.
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