Parliament: I have no chair – Haruna informs speaker

Mr Haruna Iddrisu, a Member of Parliament for Tamale South, and immediate past Minority Leader, on Thursday sat at the Majority side of the House during Proceedings.

Mr Iddrisu, who sat in the chair of Mr Joseph Osei Owusu, the First Deputy Speaker, who was presiding over the House said his action was necessitated because he could not sit in the chair of Mr Collins Dauda, Member of Parliament (MP) for Asutifi South because he was older than him in terms of age and experience as an MP.

Contributing to the Report on the adoption of the African Union Convention on Cross Border Cooperation (NIAMEY CONVENTION), he said, “Mr Speaker, I am sitting and speaking from your chair (First Deputy Speaker’s Chair), they asked me to sit in Hon Collins Dauda’s chair, but he is older than me in age and in leadership and I can’t fit in that chair because from where I am coming from, I was not raised as such.”

“I am still the elected member who represents the people of Tamale South,” he said.
After, his contributions, Mr Iddrisu walked out of the Chamber.

This is the first time Mr. Iddrisu has sat in proceedings since the House resumed on Tuesday, February 7, 2023.

At the time of “the new sitting arrangement”, Mr Osei Owusu was presiding over the proceedings after the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin had taken a break from his earlier proceedings.
The report which was adopted by the House on Thursday would provide enormous opportunities to strengthen Ghana’s integrated border management systems and establish cross-border cooperation with neighbouring countries to improve security and combat terrorism.

The African Union Convention on Cross-Border Cooperation was one of the seven legal instruments adopted at the Assembly of the Union’s 23rd Ordinary Session held on June 27, 2014, at Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.