The minority in Ghana’s Parliament say they will only respond to a recall if it focuses on Coronavirus

His comment is coming after the Speaker of Parliament, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye, recalled Ghana’s parliamentarians after proceedings were suspended on Saturday to allow for the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, to present a policy statement on government’s measures to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic later on Wednesday.

He said on Accra-base Citi FM that “If this recall is about the COVID-19 pandemic, we are prepared to meet but not any other business.”

“Once the issue is something that Minority has been calling for all throughout last week, and that is the issue for which the house is being recalled to attend, we the Minority will attend sitting,” he added.

Mr Avedzi stated that the recall was to give the monetary commitments the government had made to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We knew that the Finance Minister could not have spent the money out of the contingency fund without the approval of Parliament so we kept asking him.”

However, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, indicated that the recall was done without a consensus.

He said he was unable to reach the Minority Leader, Haruna Idrissu, on the matter.

“You can only build consensus with people who avail themselves. I have called the Minority leader several times…his phone is eternally engaged and I believe there must be a purpose to that.”

The Majority Leader also said that he has sent text messages but “for the first time he has refused to relay back to me.”

His comments are coming after tensions between the two caucuses due to the suspension of sitting instead of an indefinite adjournment.