I am not your co-equal, President tells errant legislators

President John Mahama on Tuesday set Parliament reeling with laughter when he jokingly told Minority legislators, who were heckling him that he was not their equal.

“Herr! Order!!! I’m not your co-equal”……Mr Speaker, who said tweaa” throwing the House and personalities who had thronged the Legislature to listen to his State of the Nation Address into uncontrollable hilarity.

Ironically, the Speaker of Parliament had last week declared the remark “tweea”, a twi word for disapproval or contempt, not fit for parliamentary diction. And the lawmakers overlooked the Speakers ruling on the issue and hurled the word at President, with the Speaker visibly angered by the embarrassing spectacle that was unfolding before him and other very important guest to the House.

But as the President was called upon by the Speaker to deliver his address, minority back-benchers started using the term, which initially caused consternation from the Majority side, but President Mahama started his address, which was disturbed by many “tweeea’s from the errant lawmakers, prompting the President to make the remark that sent the house into a momentary fit of laughter.

Mr Gabriel Barimah, the District Chief Executive for Ahafo Ano South, made the word “tweea” trendy when in a fit of anger asked a health worker at a public function who had used the word to signal disapproval of what the DCE had said whether they were equals.

‘Who said tweaa; am I your co-equal?’ the DCE asked the health worker, embarrassing himself with his conduct, necessitating a reprimand from government.

President Mahama, unperturbed, and occasionally giving side jabs to minority remarks, delivered his address to the admiration of the majority and party faithful, while the opposition took pot shots at every intervention the President espoused to redeem the country from its present challenges.

Meanwhile, mixed reactions have greeted the President’s address, with the Majority hailing it as “a solid all-inclusive address” that would address the countries present challenges and the Minority insisting that the Address was “near empty” without pragmatic solutions to halt the country’s economic decline.