It is the wish of many Ghanaians to live longer. Living longer doesn’t only depend on eating healthy diets and living good but also praying to God for such favour.
Rt Honorable Alban Kingsford Bagbin, speaker of parliament has revealed that it is his wish to live longer in order to see things in this current economy and beyond.
Speaking in parliament on Thursday after the censure vote to remove Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta had been lost by the minority because the number of Members of Parliament (MPs) never met the two-thirds vote requirement, he narrated a story told him by a Senior Statements.
According to him, it is his prayer to live long in order to see things though he was not specific on which on the particular things he was talking about.
He narrated “One of Senior statesman, I actually refer to him as an elder statesman told me a story that when they were in school, a gentleman used to visit them and whiles walking on the streets he would be repeating one statement and I quote ‘if we don’t die early we will see things’ . I have been praying to God to allow me not to die early so that I can see things. I am not yet old but I have started seeing things”
It would be recalled that the Minority caucus filed the motion of censure against the Finance Minister, accusing him of mismanagement of the economy, financial recklessness, conflict of interest, gross mismanagement of the economy.
An 8-member ad-hoc committee was then set up by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban sumana Kingsford Bagbin, to probe the motion brought against the Finance Minister presented its report to Parliament on November 25, 2022.
The matter was debated at the plenary on Thursday and when it was time for voting, the Majority staged a walk out rubbishing the allegations levelled against the Finance Minister.y
However, only 136 legislators on the Minority side voted on Thursday to demand the removal of Mr Ofori-Atta thus falling short of the two-thirds constitutional requirement for the motion to pass through.
The proponents of the motion needed the votes of 183 legislators to have the motion passed against Mr. Ofori-Atta.
Prior to the vote, the New Patriotic Party MPs staged a walkout and decided not to support the motion of their colleagues from the opposition side of the House.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Mensah, who led the walkout said his side cannot be part of a process that was baseless and politically motivated.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu addressing the Speaker said the censure motion by the Minority caucus was pushed out of bad faith and only sought to embarrass the Finance Minister.
“You [the Minority] want us to follow you on this misadventure. Mr Speaker, like Pontius Pilate did, we will wash our hands of this”, he said.
The Minority caucus filed a motion of censure against the Finance Minister, accusing him of mismanagement of the economy, financial recklessness, conflict of interest, and gross mismanagement of the economy.
In his defence, the Finance Minister rejected allegations of conflict of interest and gross mismanagement of the economy levelled against him by the Minority caucus in Parliament.
He said he had done nothing wrong and described the allegations against him as witch-hunting.
“If I say I am innocent they [the minority] will not believe me and if I ask for the truth and proof, they will not be able to provide that. I have committed no crime,” Mr Ofori-Atta insisted on Thursday.