Habib Iddrisu, the Second Deputy Majority Chief Whip, has asked members and supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to tolerate the absence of their Members of Parliament (MPs) at social functions and not regard it as disrespect.
He explained that due to the hung Parliament NPP MPs were required to push through government policies instead of being in their Constituencies and their absence would affect the government’s policies to accelerate socioeconomic development of the country.
“I want to appeal to our constituency executives, our regional executives, members, supporters, faithful, sympathisers and well-wishers ofthe party in various constituencies to cooperate and understand and work hard in the absence of our MPs,” Mr Habib pleaded.
Speaking at the Northern Regional Annual Delegates Conference of the party at Yendi, he charged executive members of the party to understand the situation since their absence would delay the implementation of various government policies.
Mr Iddrisu, who is the MP for Tolon in the Northern Region, maintained that due to the nature of the House, the MPs’ would be needed in Accra rather than frequenting their constituencies to attend social events and called on them to bear with them when they were unable to meet them.
“Business in Parliament is becoming difficult for the Members of Parliament of the New Patriotic Party because almost every parliamentary business brought before the House for consideration is subjected to vote, notable among them are vote to elect the Speaker of the House as well as the passage of the 2021 budget.
“We do not have the luxury of numbers as we used to have in 2016 where we had 169 MPs, at the moment, as a deputy majority whip, we always want to have our MPs in Parliament because we have voted on almost everything in Parliament.
“Starting on the Speaker, we voted on the ministers, we voted on the budget, we voted on the Appropriation Bill, we voted on COVID-19 levy and a lot of issues that is happening in Parliament,” Mr Iddrisu averred. –myjoyonline.com
