Former Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye has indicated that consensus building is critical in handling matters in the House currently.
In his view, disagreements that occur between the two sides of the House can be resolved amicably by reaching consensus.
Speaking in an interview with TV3’s Alfred Ocansey on the Ghana Tonight show on Wednesday November 9, the former Dome-Kwabenya Member of Parliament indicated that 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.
Regarding absenteeism in Parliament, Prof Oquaye indicated that it was one area he failed to tackle successfully.
“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 said.
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.”
By Laud Nartey|editors.3news.com|Ghana
