The editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Kwaku Baako Jnr has dismissed claims that the President violated the standing orders of Parliament during his presentation of the 2016 State of the Nation address.
He argued that the President’s decision to undertake an evidence-based presentation was a novelty.
During President John Mahama’s State of the Nation address to Parliament last week, he brought in persons who had benefited from some social interventions of his government and at the mention of their names, they stood up and waved to all present.
Many have criticized this move by the President, saying, it informed the decision by Members of Parliament (MPs) to make “unnecessary noise and misbehave.”
“This State of the Nation address, I think that the key thing that has come out is this evidence-based presentation. I think it is the novelty that comes out. Everything else is the same, not in terms of quantum, in figures but the introduction of this evidence-based is what I see as something striking and people have raised the issue whether if it is Parliamentary or not,” Kwaku Baako Jnr remarked.
Contributing to a panel discussion on Accra-based Joy FM, the ace journalist said: “I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with it in terms of Parliamentary practice. I’ve checked the standing orders and my scrutiny revealed nothing that shows that this was a violation of Parliamentary practice of any kind.”
According to Mr. Baako Jnr, this is not the first time evidence has been brought to Parliament for illustration.
He recalled that “if you go into history…Parliamentarians could bring koobi, kenkey, plantain and other things to Parliament in the course of their debate to illustrate what they wanted people to understand issues such as hardships of cost of living.”
He therefore argued that “if Parliamentarians can bring in objects which in the course of their deliberations an debate use them to illustrate a point, then I am inclined to believe that the President doing that did not violate any standing order which is the practice of Parliament.”