Kwame Asare Obeng alias A Plus
The Majority Group in Parliament on Friday, November 26, 2021, walked out of the House during a session to consider approval of the 2022 budget presented by the government through the Finance Minister.
For one time sympathizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Kwame Asare Obeng, alias A Plus, a musician cum politician and activist; there is no surprise that the NPP MPs ‘abandoned’ the budget allowing only the Minority MPs to vote and subsequently reject it as widely expected.
According to A Plus, the NPP have proven to be experts at abandoning a number of things including projects and a party office for that matter. He did note which specific party office.
He posted his views on the incident in a Facebook post hours after the budget was rejected, he also chastised the Majority’s reported reason for walking out, the presence of the General Secretary of the opposition NDC in the public gallery of the House.
His post read: “How can one person sitting in the public gallery of parliament, where the media and other citizens are seated cause the majority to abandon such an important sitting.
“I’m not surprised koraa. If they can abandon projects including their own party office, why won’t they abandon this? I told you that way these guys like abandoning things, let’s change their name to Abandenden People’s Party.”
Budget rejected, Majority reject ‘rejection’
A one-sided House (the Minority Caucus en bloc) on Friday, November 26, voted to reject the 2022 Budget presented before the house by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on November 17.
The Majority Group had earlier walked out of the House after a disagreement with the Speaker on his order to have all non-MPs to leave the floor of the house for a crucial voice vote.
The vote in question was to determine whether a request by the Finance Minister for Parliament to give him time to consult with the leadership of the house on aspects of the budget before the approval vote is held.
Bagbin later allowed the 137 Minority MPs to vote on the Minister’s prayer, which was rejected before they also voted en bloc to reject the 2022 budget as presented by Ofori-Atta.
The Majority in a later press conference accused the Speaker of engaging in unconstitutionality vowing to right the wrong that the Speaker and the Minority committed when the House reconvenes coming Tuesday.