The Majority Leader in Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, has defended the decision to hold the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor’s briefing behind closed doors, accusing the Minority of prioritising media attention over accountability.
His comments followed the Minority’s walkout during a Committee of the Whole sitting on Wednesday, July 15, after First Deputy Speaker Bernard Ahiafor ruled that the media would not be permitted to cover the proceedings.
Addressing journalists, Mr. Ayariga argued that the Minority’s demand for a public session was inconsistent with parliamentary practice.
“If you read our Standing Orders, it says in Order 266 that meetings of committees shall be held in public except otherwise determined by the committee. So I asked them to convince the entire committee to sit in public. But if you don’t convince the committee to agree, you cannot force it,” he explained.
He dismissed claims that the Governor, Dr. Johnson Asiama, was avoiding scrutiny, noting that the Governor had prepared written responses and was willing to make the information available to the media.
“If accountability was their priority, they would have stayed to engage the Governor. Their actions show they are more interested in media optics than in obtaining answers,” Ayariga said.
The Majority Leader further criticised what he described as the Minority’s disregard for parliamentary procedures, stressing that processes must be guided by Standing Orders rather than individual preferences.
“If you want to do that, you have to approach us, you have to work with us, and we will all agree that this is how we are going to do it,” he added.
The Minority had objected to the closed-door ruling, insisting that previous BoG briefings had been open to the public. Their walkout was accompanied by a suspension of participation in the proceedings.
Mr. Ayariga maintained that the decision was not intended to prevent the media from accessing information, but to uphold parliamentary procedure.
By Eric Bekoe (KOB)
