Mahama Ayariga
Opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, has sued the government over the implementation of programmes such as ‘Planting for Food and Jobs,’ Free Senior High School (SHS), Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP), among other pro-poor policies designed to make life comfortable for the marginalized in society.
According to a writ filed at the Supreme Court, the implementation of these and other intervention programmes ought to be restrained by the court.
Apart from new policies and programmes envisaged by President Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to improve the living conditions of Ghanaians, the NDC MP is also praying the apex court to restrain the government from going ahead to implement existing policies like the Microfinance and Small Loans Center (MASLOC).
He claims in the writ that the government, in implementing the policies, did not lay before parliament to seek the operational modalities for some of the programmes.
Mr Ayariga is, therefore, requesting the court to order the president or the relevant minister, to lay the framework and roadmaps of the implementation of the policies before parliament before they are carried through.
Free SHS Contracts
The free SHS programme, which was one of the key campaign promises of the NPP in the run-up to the 2016 general election, was implemented in September last year to benefit thousands of SHS students who hitherto would have been school dropouts.
But Mr Ayariga avers in his suit that the programme “entails the exercise of discretionary power in the selection of suppliers of food to the schools for the provision of three square meals a day to boarding students and one hot meal for day students; and such discretionary power is of the nature envisaged in Article 296 and consequently regulations in the form of constitutional or statutory instrument sought to be made to govern the exercise of such powers.”
According to him, failure to make such regulations defies the 1992 Constitution and consequently, the “Minister responsible for Education should be directed to present such proposed regulations to parliament for enactment and until the contracts for the supply of food to senior high schools under the Free SHS programme should be declared null and void and set aside.”
Planting For Food
The Planting for Food and Job policy was introduced by the NPP government to help address the declining growth of Ghana’s agricultural sector.
But Mr. Ayariga claims that the implementation of the policy entails the exercise of discretionary power; and suggests that regulations in the form of constitutional or statutory instrument ought to be made to govern the exercise of such powers, saying failure to do so is an affront to the 1992 Constitution.
Reliefs
Among other reliefs sought by the MP are “an order of mandamus compelling the president or his assigned ministers to bring to parliament appropriate legislation establishing the institutions or agencies to implement the said initiatives, and to have proper regulations presented to parliament for enactment to govern the exercise of discretionary powers necessarily implicated in the implementation of the said initiatives, once the Appropriations (No. 2) Act, 2017 (Act 951) was passed by parliament authorizing the appropriation of the funds; an interim order of injunction restraining the president or his agents from implementing the initiatives until such time as the appropriate institutions for implementation are enacted by parliament and the appropriate regulations to govern the implementation of the said initiatives are also approved by parliament.”
He is also seeking any other order or orders the court may deem fit to give effect to the declaration he is seeking.
Nana Jabs
The NDC lawmaker’s suit comes a few months after President Akufo-Addo had taken a swipe at the minority NDC for being insensitive to the plight of less-privileged Ghanaians by scrapping polices meant to better their lives.
According to the president, the NDC has over the years shown that it does not have in its plans a place for polices and initiatives aimed at bettering the lives of the majority of Ghanaians.
Making reference to the nursing and teacher trainee allowances which were insensitively scrapped by the erstwhile NDC government, the president said the party has a track record for scrapping pro-poor policies.
In 2013, the NDC government scrapped the teacher trainee allowances and this generated a tirade of displeasure among students and parents of students in colleges of education across the country.
The National Democratic Congress government in 2015 also scrapped the trainee nurses’ allowance, arguing that it was to allow the various nursing training institutions to admit more trainees.
By Gibril Abdul Razak