E-levy: Majority Leader must demonstrate leadership – Edudzi Tamekloe
A legal practitioner has asked the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, to appreciate the unique nature of the current Parliament and exhibit leadership skills that are premised on dialoguing.
Godwin Edudzi Tamekloe says the NPP MPs should be courageous enough to let Ghanaians know they do not have the required number to pass the E-levy into law.
Speaking to Samson Lardy Anyenini on Newsfile, Saturday, Mr. Tamekloe urged the Parliamentary Affairs Minister to effectively engage his side to avoid needless accusations that will keep the E-levy debate in a stalemate.
“I think the Majority Leader must begin to demonstrate leadership. If you don’t have the numbers and are unable to marshal the numbers, be frank with the people of this country,” he advised.
According to Edudzi Tamekloe, the Majority should blame themselves for the ‘forced’ exit of the Speaker on Friday, January 28 after a long delay in the commencement of proceedings.
He says the posturing of the NPP legislators was unfair to the Speaker, the Minority and even themselves as they could not table the E-levy for discussion.
“It was very late in the evening when the issue of e-levy came in and I recall very well the Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu and Muntaka Mubarak raised the issue if you are putting up this bill now, we have to debate and vote on it.”
“They [the Majority] deliberately kept shifting to the point that the Speaker had no other option to threaten that he wants to leave. I think it is pretty obvious that the leadership of the Majority are unable to marshal the numbers required for the purposes of carrying the E-levy through,” he added.
Mr. Tamekloe, who doubles as a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s legal team, further stated that the Majority Caucus should shoulder greater responsibility in ensuring consensus building in the House.
Meanwhile, the Nhyiaeso MP, Dr Stephen Amoah, is calling on opposers to present data that prove Ghanaians are indeed against the proposed Electronic Transfer Levy aka E-Levy.
According to him, the supposed resistance against the bill is not based on a critical analysis of the needs of the ordinary Ghanaian.
“The NDC, I understand them because they want to come to power. But the so-called experts should provide relevant needed pieces of information out of well-collected research data points so that we can support them,” Dr Amoah said.
Source: Ghana News
