Parliament could still not debate the private member’s motion moved by Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga, asking the house to resolve to request the President to take urgent steps to suspend payment of fees by new entrants into public tertiary education institutions and fees of continuing students of those institutions for the 2020/2021 academic year as part of the national COVID 19 relief programmes being implemented by government.
Debate on the motion was suspended Wednesday over the text of the language and it was expected a mutual agreement would have been reached Thursday for the debate to take place.
However, at the sitting on Thursday, January 21, it came out that the differences have not been resolved. The mover of the motion, Mahama Ayariga insisted he sees nothing wrong with the text.
The Speaker, Alban Bagbin expressed reservations about the language and made some suggestions.
The Majority Group Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu raised some concerns about the placement of the motion on the order paper as well as the insistence of Mr. Ayariga on his original text.
MP for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini, suggested that the Speaker allowed debate to commence on the motion and at the end, the wording of the resolution to the President could be agreed.
The Speaker directed the leadership of both sides to meet Thursday to agree on a common text for debate to take place Friday.
The speaker has meanwhile announced a 13-member technical committee under the chairmanship of first deputy speaker Joseph Osei- Owusu to review the new standing orders.
The adoption of the new standing orders is expected to resolve many of the controversies in this current Parliament especially with regard to membership and chairmanship of committees.
