Supporters of a right to information bill in Ghana returned to the streets in front of the parliament building this week to press for action and some were slightly injured in scuffles with police.
Majority Leader of Parliament Cletus Avoka was not encouraging as he urged patience and told the picketers lobbyists Feb. 2 that parliament cannot be “torpedoed” into passing a bill.
“Parliament, why the delay?” asked the headline on the press release from the Coalition for the Right to Information, led by the human rights campaigner Nana Oye Lithur.
“We are picketing Parliament this afternoon to press home our point and we urge Parliament to demonstrate commitment to transparency and accountability and to ensure that this bill is passed,” she said, according to a My Joy media account by Nathan Gadugah.
The Ghanaian Chronicle quoted Avoka as saying, “We don’t want to rush and pass a law that will not stand the test of time.” The paper’s report continued:
However, Mr. Avoka declined to give a specific timeframe within which Parliament would consider the passage of the RTI Bill into law, when he was pushed by Nana Oye Lithur. “Nobody can torpedo Parliament to pass a law that will not stand the test of time”, he noted.
Minority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu said the House will consider the bill after it returns from a five week break, according to the same report.
Cold Feet
The bill was approved by the Cabinet and submitted to a parliamentary committee in September. (See previous Freedominfo.org report.)
Planned nationwide consultations have not been held, and a key parliamentarian said recently that budget considerations were the reason. (See previous Freedominfo.org report.)
Activists commented in notes to Freedominfo.org about the lack of action.
“It’s a question of cold feet and a realization of how powerful an FOI law can be,” commented one activist.
Another wrote: “Parliament and Government are weary of the bill, they just don’t want to pass
the bill. They know what the repercussions will be on them, so they’re using all means to make sure the bill doesn’t become law.”
Protest Impeded
Coalition leaders complained that they were not allowed to enter Parliament House. Lithur said the group was told they had no right to picket because President John Mills was about to commission a road, an explanation they did not accept, according to another My Joy report.
The report continued:
She said the police personnel will only allow ten of the group’s leaders to proceed to Parliament, a compromised position they rejected because Parliament is a public place.
She said they were even more disappointed that the same security allowed members of the Ghana Supporters Union access to Parliament House to drum and dance in support of the Youth and Sports Minister-elect Kofi Humado who was about to be vetted.
In obedience to the shouts of charge by a superior officer, the security personnel lunged on the picketers and manhandled them, Oye Lithur narrated.
“So they (police) said they will not allow us in, so we came and stood in front of the gate with our placards. Then the police formed a cordon, then the chief of the police told them to charge; they charged on us and then pushed us.
“Our disabled members were on the floor, they pushed the wheel chairs, and some had received cuts and scratches on their faces and we are still behind the locked gate of parliament,” she told Joy News’ Sammy Darko.
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