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Members of Parliament who report to the legislative House late risk being stranded at the door of the chamber from next year because the Speaker, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has vowed to lock the door at 10 am on the dot.
According to the “number three gentleman of the land,” the lawmakers’ lateness to parliament affects the start of the House’s sitting, hence the tough decision to start locking the door to enhance productivity.
“There is nowhere in the world where the Speaker will have to go and sit and wait for MPs to come in; it does not happen. So please, from the first meeting of the fourth session of the Eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic, at 10 am, the doors will be locked,” Bagbin warned.
He added that if the legislators have difficulty complying with the 10 am timeline, then there should be a consensus to start sitting in the afternoon and close later in the night.
“At 10 am, the doors will be locked. The Speaker will be in, and it will take some time before the doors will be opened. Not that they won’t be opened, but it will take some time. And so if you are not able to comply with it, let us all agree that we will start sitting in the afternoon, from 2 p.m. or 4 p.m.; the Committees will have their meetings in the morning; reports will be ready for us to consider in the afternoon; and then by the time we adjourn around 8 p.m., the traffic situation will have improved.
“Your coming to Parliament too will not be that early, so you can decide to leave at noon, and by that time, there would have been less traffic, and you won’t consume more fuel, and then you can come in. I can see that it is not easy for members to report that early for sitting, so the two Caucuses either have joint Caucus meetings or, at your level, discuss these things and come back with proposals,” the former Nadowli-Kaleo lawmaker suggested.
He emphasized that lateness to parliament will not be tolerated going forward.
NKONKONSA.com
