The Minority caucus has registered their displeasure at some cabinet ministers who skipped the 2023 Budget statement and economic policy debate to watch the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
The Minority said the behaviour connotes the governing New Patriotic Party has no respect for the people of Ghana, or the mandate bestowed on them to govern.
Members of Parliament including Ursula Owusu-Ekuful and Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh were photographed in Qatar despite the budget debate in Parliament.
The majority of NPP MPs who did not travel to the Middle East to watch the tournament were also absent from the house floor, leaving the minority MPs to discuss the budget.
Commenting on this development at a press conference in Accra on Monday, 6 December 2022, the Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu the minority caucus has been profoundly startled at the show of disdain and disinterest in the budget process by the very administration that delivered it.
He said the 2023 Budget statement and economic policy are completely devoid of any persuasive strategy to get the country out of the chaos and turbulence in the economy.
“We [Minority] have been left dumbfounded as Cabinet Ministers who double as MPs and who form part of the government that has superintended over the greatest economic crisis of our time abandoned the important budget debate and approval process only to be seen in Qatar making merry and taking selfies during the world cup,” Haruna Iddrisu noted.
Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, however, wondered how President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo allowed his cabinet ministers to journey to Qatar to enjoy the World Cup at the expense of the 2023 Budget debate.
Several Ghanaians have also taken to social media to slam the NPP MPs for abandoning the budget debate, stating that it seems they do not have the nation at heart.
According to them, traveling abroad to watch a tournament despite the country’s present predicaments show the callousness and selfishness of the NPP MPs and that the country’s development is not on their scale of preference.
By: Bernard Ralph Adams | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana
