JOINT COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Discussion with Ghanaian Parliamentary Delegation.

Chairman

I welcome the delegation. Some members of the committee are absent because of a vote in the Seanad. The delegates may recognise some of the members present.

Deputy Rory O'Hanlon visited Ghana in 2005 as Ceann Comhairle. Deputy Michael D. Higgins, who the delegation met briefly, is president of the Labour Party. Deputy Darragh O'Brien is the Whip of this joint committee. Senator Ivor Callely is also present. Other Senators, who were present previously, have left for a brief time and will return.

I must remind members and those in the Gallery to ensure that mobile telephones are switched off completely for the duration of the meeting as they cause interference, even on silent mode, with the recording equipment in committee rooms. This instruction should be respected and the telephones should be completely switched off. I will switch off my own mobile telephone. Members and delegates should appreciate they are being recorded on television and aurally at the same time.

It is a great pleasure to welcome before the joint committee a distinguished delegation of parliamentarians from Ghana. I welcome the Rt. Hon. Ebenezer B. Sekyi Hughes, who is Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana. He is accompanied by his honourable parliamentary colleagues, Abraham Ossei-Aidooh, Alban Bagbin, Christine Churcher, Andrew K. Mensah, Alexander Tetteh-Enyo and David Apasera, as well as by their staff, Mr. Matthew Abrefa Tawiah, Mr. Solomon A. Nkrumah and Mrs. Agnes Betty Hughes. They are all welcome today.

Before we begin I advise witnesses that whereas Members of the Houses enjoy absolute privilege — I am sure this is the case for the delegates when in their own House at home — in respect of utterances made in committee, witnesses do not enjoy such privilege. Accordingly, caution should be exercised, particularly with regard to references of a personal nature.

The delegates are most welcome to Ireland and I hope their visit will enhance relations between Ireland and Ghana, both at parliamentary level and at other levels of our bilateral relations. The delegates have a highly intensive programme while in Ireland and I am pleased they have been able to appear before our joint committee. The Rt. Hon. Mr. Hughes will speak, as will other delegates if they consider it to be appropriate, on the situation in Ghana.

Mr. Hughes has practised with great success as a barrister and solicitor in Ghana for more than 40 years. In that time, he also has filled many important legal positions. In 2005, he was elected Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana. The distinction and professionalism that he brought to that important post earned him national and international recognition, including his election as Vice Chairman of the African Parliamentary Union in 2005, the bestowal on him in 2006 of the President's award, the Order of the Star of Ghana and his election as chairman of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association from 2006 to 2007.

Ghana was the first sub-Saharan country to gain its independence from a colonial power, in its case, the United Kingdom, in 1957. After some difficult years, Ghana now is considered to be one of the most economically successful, influential and democratic states in west Africa. As a result of wide-ranging reforms introduced by its Government, Ghana is setting an example for other African countries. Government policies have stimulated economic growth in recent years and inflation has been sharply reduced. While the domestic economy continues to revolve around subsistence farming, Ghana has approximately twice the per capita output of the poorest countries in west Africa. With its considerable natural resources, especially in gold, cocoa and, most recently, oil, it has great potential to make further progress. Ghana also has benefited substantially from debt relief initiatives since 2002. I should state that while Ireland never became involved in debt with African countries, we have contributed to debt relief.

I am familiar with Ghana's involvement with the New Partnership for African Development, NEPAD. Were delegates to tell members something of the progress of NEPAD in the course of their contribution it would be helpful, because all members are keen to support NEPAD in any way possible. I now invite the Rt. Hon. Mr. Hughes to address the joint committee.

The Rt. Hon. Mr. Ebenezer B. Sekyi Hughes

On behalf of my delegation, I thank the Chairman for inviting us before the joint committee, which we deem to be a privilege. On behalf of my delegation, I also wish to express my gratitude for the invitation for this reciprocal visit to the Republic of Ireland, as well as for courtesies extended to us since our arrival yesterday.

Ghana and the Republic of Ireland have had long-standing relations, even before this relationship was formalised. In the 1950s and 1960s, Irish missionaries were to be found in Ghana in the fields of education, trade and missionary work. In the 1950s and 1960s, some of the top secondary schools in Ghana were headed by Irish missionaries. There were also Irish priests in the Catholic churches and they supported us in the field of health.

As I recalled earlier this afternoon, in the 1960s Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien, the famous former Member of the Irish Parliament, was invited by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, to be the first vice chancellor of the University of Ghana. For the three years that he was in Ghana as vice chancellor, I was his student. I recall with the fondest memory the impression he made on me and my generation. Dr. O'Brien was a great man who defended academic freedom to the best of his ability. The influence of Dr. O'Brien on me and on Ghana in general has been great and I salute him for his great work.

As members are aware, Ghana has had a chequered political history. Thankfully, however, the country has a stable constitutional government at present. Thus far, Ghana has had four republics. We are now in the fourth Parliament of the fourth republic. We have had four successful elections and hope to have another one in December 2008. Ghana has a unicameral Parliament and its members are directly elected by the electorate, which comprises those who are 18 years and older, every four years. The President is also directly elected.

In Parliament at present, there are four political parties and one Independent Member. The majority has 136 Members while the minority has 94 Members. In our midst today is the majority leader, who is the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the Hon. Mr. Abraham Ossei-Aidooh. Also present is the minority leader, the Hon. Mr. Alban Bagbin. In addition, the delegation includes the chairperson of the foreign affairs committee, the Hon. Ms Christine Churcher, as well as its vice chairperson, the Hon. Mr. David Apasera. We have two honourable MPs here. The Hon. Mr. Alex Tetteh-Enyo is a member for the minority and the Hon. Mr. Andrew Mensah is a member for the majority. Our staff is behind us.

When Parliament is convened its first responsibility is to elect the Speaker. The Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana is elected by Members of Parliament and can come from the Parliament or from outside. If he is from Parliament he must resign his position as Member of Parliament. From 1950 to date no Speaker has been a Member of Parliament. The idea is to have a Speaker who is not susceptible to political pressure one way or the other. We have two Deputy Speakers who must be Members of Parliament but must not belong to the same political party. After the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speakers, Members of Parliament are sworn in and the President is then sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana.

As in all other parliaments, a lot of work is done through the committee system. When a matter comes before Parliament, the Speaker refers it to the appropriate committee which takes views from, not only Members of Parliament, but from the general public. A report is prepared and submitted to Parliament for debate and a decision is taken thereafter.

The one way in which our democracy in Ghana is different is that Members of Parliament engage with the public. This is done through several media. For instance, we have the Speaker's breakfast to which members of the public are invited so that they may put questions to MPs and to the Speaker. We have a national forum to which members of the public are invited also and we have an outreach programme throughout the whole country. The Speaker and the leadership have travelled throughout the ten regions of the country and just completed a visit to the tenth region a couple of weeks ago. We hold public discussions with the general public who are entitled to ask questions. The purpose is to deepen democracy and to let the people know about Parliament and its activities. We invite the public to ask questions which we answer so that everybody feels part of the system.

As the Chairman indicated, the economy is not doing well. We know that the Irish economy has considerably improved. The intention of our visit is to deepen the already cordial relations that exists between our two legislatures and to let the Irish Parliament know that we are pursuing the liberal type of economy. We believe that private enterprise is the engine of growth. We are developing and need assistance from several countries including this one, especially in the field of agriculture which Ireland is good at, and also in trade, development and energy generation. I am happy to inform the committee that Ghana has discovered gold in commercial quantities. I apologise — we already have gold, what we have discovered is oil in commercial quantities. We certainly need assistance in the extraction of oil and in its production.

Now that the chairperson for our foreign affairs committee is here, supported by the two leaders, I believe my job is done. I thank the committee for inviting us here.

Chairman

I thank the Speaker. Perhaps the chairperson of the foreign affairs committee will comment at this stage.

The Hon. Ms Christine Churcher

I thank the Chairman. We all accept that the world has suddenly dwindled into one global village where positive relationships with each other has become a must. Ghana had always been non-aligned and, as the Speaker said, it has gone through a chequered history. We have had many relationships — foreign relations are called that — and we have come this far. These are the questions that we always ask ourselves. From where have we come? How far have we gone? For any country to develop it is important not only to relate to others but also to learn and for others to learn from us. So far, our foreign policy has been one of open arms whereby we have learned and others have learned from us.

The committee will know that Ghana has always been called the "star of Africa". When it came to independence we took the lead. Indeed, the whole of Africa looks to us to take a step of growth. It looks up to us because we are surrounded by neighbours, some of which are war-torn, some without peace as we speak, while we are civilised. Much is expected from us. When our President was Chairman of the African Union, AU, he did a great deal in the area of peace negotiations.

As the Honourable Speaker said, the relationship between Ghana and Ireland dates back some time. We are brothers and sisters and we are excited at the opportunity to interact with the members of the committee. We believe that at the end of the day the members will learn from us as we will learn from them. At this point I invite my two leaders to make a few comments on NEPAD and on a few of the structural adjustments we have made thus far.

The Hon. Mr. Abraham Ossei-Aidooh

I thank the Chair. My name is Ossei-Aidooh and I am the leader of the majority in Parliament. I have been honoured by my boss at this meeting by being invited to make some remarks on NEPAD. As members will recall, NEPAD is a bridge between the developed world and Africa. In Ghana we have been happy with it, especially because it creates respect for the rule of law, democracy and good governance as the conditions necessary for support from the Western world. For us, that is important.

We in Ghana have always believed that democracy should not be alien to Africa and that respect for human rights and enjoyment of such rights is part of this process, no matter what the risks. Therefore, Ghana has never had any problem with NEPAD and its conditions. Ghana was the first country in Africa to voluntarily accede to all requests to be reviewed. It was the first country to ask to be assessed under all the NEPAD criteria. We are happy to say we were marked well. We have enjoyed the benefits of good governance in the last two decades or so. As a consequence, we have enjoyed debt relief and forgiveness. We have had debts of approximately €4 billion cancelled. We have received approximately €547 million from the USA from the millennium challenge account. All of this is due to our adherence to human rights. In all humility, we can say Ghana has set the standard for our colleagues in the sub-region. More importantly, we have put in place the conditions in which our engagement with the European Union can be based on respect for human rights. The European Union is supporting many NEPAD projects in Ghana, including Rural Reconstruction Africa, the energy development project and the school feeding programme, which means a lot in Africa.

Leaders throughout the world must insist that all humanity — all countries and governments — must accept minimum human rights which are legitimately the rights of the people they lead. That has been the cornerstone of Ghana's foreign policy since the fourth republic was established in 1991. The people of Ghana decided at the time that they had had enough of military interruptions. They were no longer prepared to accept any usurpation of their sovereignty by any group of people, whether armoured or armed. There has been stable democracy in Ghana for the last 16 years or so. The government which lost power in 2000, having been in power for eight years, was succeeded by a government which has now been in power for eight years. Recent elections have been peaceful, democratic, free and fair. The services of foreign observers were not even required at the last general election. We believe that, with the support and goodwill we have enjoyed, we will have a similar event in December this year. That is important for us.

I thank the Chairman and his colleagues for giving me an opportunity to address this august body. My colleague, Mr. Bagbin, will add a few words.

The Hon. Mr. Alban S.K. Bagbin

It is a privilege and an honour to be given this opportunity to say a few words about Ghana and the New Partnership for Africa's Development. NEPAD was established by Africans, supported by our development partners. It started with individual actions such as the Omega plan taken by heads of state. Ghana was not one of the initiators of NEPAD. However, when we saw that the programme contained such pearls of wisdom, we seized on it. As my colleague, the majority leader, said, even though Ghana did not initiate NEPAD, it quickly appreciated that it was a good instrument for development. Ghana decided to accede to NEPAD and agreed to be the first country to be reviewed under the African peer review mechanism, a well structured institutional framework, whereby an assessment is conducted by a group of professionals from all sectors of the economic, academic and business fields. Each country is first assessed by its own national council and then by the African Council. The councils are led by people with a great deal of experience and expertise in governance, economics, democracy and all aspects of life. Ghana has performed creditably as a country. The report on the country has been presented to the African Council. The President of Ghana was invited to answer questions on a number of occasions. The review of the country looks at the government — the institutional framework we have put in place for ourselves to practice democracy. Our attention has been drawn to a few areas in which we could do better.

As the Chairman said clearly, Ghana has always been seen as the star of Africa. It is now seen as the leading democratic country in Africa, just as Nigeria is seen as a most populous and oil-rich country and South Africa is seen as a country that has performed wonderfully well by reconciling the different races which have influenced its history. Ghana, which is doing very well, is grateful to its partner countries. Ireland has done a great deal to support Ghana. We have not squandered that support — we have put it to good use. We can now say democracy in Ghana is being consolidated. The economy is moving forward. We have a growth rate of 6.2% which we are aiming to increase to between 8% and 10% but we still need more support. The international community can rely on Ghana because it has committed itself irrevocably to the democratic path. We have no intention of ever going back. The culture of democracy in Ghana is deepening. Its leaders have not abused the confidence and trust of the people. I assure the committee that the elections which will take place later this year will be peaceful. Equally, I assure it that I will play a key role in the next Government of Ghana.

Chairman

I thank Mr. Bagbin. The amount of time available to the committee for questions is limited because the committee has to meet another delegation. Deputy O'Hanlon, a former Speaker of our Parliament, visited Ghana in 2005. Before I invite him to speak, I welcome Mr. Liam Canniffe who is in the Visitors Gallery. He was the Irish ambassador to Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia until recently. He has returned from west Africa but continues to show an interest in what is happening there. I ask Deputy O'Hanlon to address the delegation.

Deputy Rory O’Hanlon

I thank the Chairman. As we have to meet another delegation, I will not delay the committee.

I am delighted that the Ghanaian delegation is in Ireland. Like my colleagues who accompanied me on my visit to Ghana in 2005, I have fond memories of the wonderful time I had in that country. We were very impressed with what we saw. I was very impressed with the commitment to democracy shown by the President of Ghana, Mr. Kufuor. He is doing great work with the Economic Community of West African States — I think he might have been president of the community at that stage. Mr. Sekyi-Hughes mentioned the close links between Ireland and Ghana. The work done by Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien in Ghana was also mentioned. When we were in Ghana, we saw evidence of the long tradition of Irish missionaries in the country. They have been particularly involved in the Ghanaian education system. We learned more about the close links between Ireland and Ghana during the visit which we certainly enjoyed. I am glad to renew those links now.

Has the new parliament building been completed? When we were in Ghana, the government was looking for $12 million to complete the project. Some Members of Parliament were working out of the boots of their cars in the absence of a parliament building.My other question refers to how ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, is developing in west Africa. What difficulties currently exist there as far as Ghana is concerned?

While I know that AIDS is not as big a problem in west Africa as it is further south on that continent, UNICEF and the World Health Organisation were doing some work in that respect. At the time, we commented on the fact that there was a lack of co-ordination between both bodies, with some duplication involved. I wonder how the management of AIDS is progressing.

Chairman

I now call on Deputy Billy Timmins, who is the foreign affairs spokesperson for Fine Gael.

Deputy Billy Timmins

I could not attend the initial presentation but I was watching it on the monitor. I served in Lebanon with the Irish Army and the neighbouring battalion from Ghana was based in Shakra. We had a good relationship with them except when it came to playing soccer because the Ghanaians were very rough. It caused a lot of difficulties and we had a few abandoned matches with them.

As was correctly stated, Ghana is one of the leading democratic countries in Africa. Does the delegation have a view on the current situation in Zimbabwe? The Southern African Development Community seems to be paralysed to a certain degree. Being so far away, it is easy for us to express strong views on the matter but I would like to hear what concerns, if any, the delegation has on the situation in Zimbabwe.

I know that Ghana has made contributions to the African Union and has a good peacekeeping record. Does Ghana currently have a troop contribution in Darfur or elsewhere in Sudan? If so, how does the delegation find it is working out? Should the Sudanese permit United Nations-mandated troops, other than African Union soldiers, to enter the country? The delegation may be aware that the Irish Army has troops in Chad which are dealing with refugees coming across the border, but peacekeeping in Sudan is currently restricted to African Union troops.

Chairman

I now call Deputy Michael D. Higgins, who is a spokesperson for the Labour Party, of which he is also president.

Deputy Michael D. Higgins

I was interested in the reference to the contribution of my colleague, Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien, to African affairs. He was a member of my party for a long time and defended academic freedom abroad at a difficult period. I welcome the delegation. There has been a quiet revolution in agricultural production in west Africa. Ghana is one of the countries where agricultural output has increased by approximately 10%, which is welcome. It differs from some of its neighbours in that regard, such as Sierra Leone, where there has been no growth at all. My question relates to NEPAD and I have a problem with its economics. The 10% growth rate in agriculture in Ghana and even more so in other countries, comes primarily from smallholders. In some countries, 80% of the growth is accounted for by smallholders, which raises the question as to whether or not NEPAD affects that growth.

Micro credit schemes are important and our briefing mentioned the liberalisation of Ghana's economy. Looked at from outside, however, the liberalisation of the banking sector, for example, would not necessarily be in the interests of smallholders who are producing more than anyone else, often using simple tools. That may be a clue to a bigger problem concerning NEPAD. NEPAD assumed there would be a significant local contribution to trigger growth. However, people living on $2 a day or less would have about 12 cent free for what NEPAD describes as "necessary seed money". There is a contradiction between the most productive people in such countries, where there has been a high increase in agriculture thanks to smallholders, and the credit or seed system that is available to them. In 2007, the World Bank acknowledged it was wrong in what it had been prescribing for the agricultural sector. On the other hand, liberal macro-economic reforms seem to be entirely contradictory, involving failed policies. I am interested in how the delegation from Ghana regards the situation.

Is there a commitment to the general availability of water to all smallholders?

Chairman

We have very little time left so I will ask Mr. David Apasera to make a brief comment on some of the points that have been raised. We will send the delegation's best wishes to the Irish Missionary Union, which is still very active. Its representatives attend this committee from time to time. We will also convey the delegation's good wishes to Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien. Africa Day is on 25 May, and Irish Aid will be involved. There is a big programme of events involved and we will provide the delegation with some copies of the programme. I congratulate the delegation on Ghana's service with the United Nations, which has always been a major issue for us. Ghana has contributed greatly to the UN's work, as Deputy Timmins said.

The Hon. Mr. David Apasera

Thank you, Chairman, for the opportunity to contribute. Ghana belongs to ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, which is trying to organise itself into a body like the European Union. We realise that the population within our sub-region can encourage agricultural production, so we may not have to seek external markets. If we could ease border restrictions, however, the market would be open for the whole area to evolve. The current ECOWAS Parliament is not comparable to the European Parliament because it is simply a consultative assembly. When ECOWAS Heads of State meet they can refer matters to the ECOWAS Parliament for advice. We cannot say that we have achieved all that we wished to, but we have done enough in, for example, allowing the free movement of people across borders. We also have committees in every country dealing with commercial matters. The foreign affairs ministry monitors the free movement of people between ECOWAS countries. This is the update on ECOWAS. I do not know whether I have answered the question that was raised.

The Hon. Mr. Alban S.K. Bagbin

A larger market has definitely been created by the formation of ECOWAS and there is more interregional trade. A framework has been established and there is a Parliament, courts and a Heads of State summit. Shortly, there will be direct elections of members to the ECOWAS Parliament, but at present there are representatives from various parliaments. An examination of the contribution of development partners, including the UN organisations such as UNICEF, shows that there seems to be some duplication of programmes in the country. As a result, we have formed a multidonor support group, whereby we co-ordinate the activities of our development partners and their donations and the duplication has been reduced to the bare minimum. Sometimes the officials from these agencies wish to be seen to be making a different impact from that of the government, which can be a difficulty.

I had the opportunity of leading a global parliamentary delegation on a visit to Zimbabwe to try to intervene to see if we could bring the two sides together. We made some modest gains. For the first time, according to some of the Members of Parliament there, our intervention resulted in members of the Government party refer to the Opposition as brothers and sisters on the floor of Parliament. They saw this as quite an achievement and it would not have happened without our presence. It is a difficult and emotional situation. The issues include problems with democracy, land issues and, as usual, President Mugabe hanging on to power. There are problems with weaknesses in the democratic institutions such as the electoral commission. The culture of democracy is too weak in Zimbabwe and, therefore, there is a need for us to do something to try to support and strengthen the culture of democracy in the country.

At present the Government is calling for a run-off election, but the Opposition does not support this idea. It is likely, however, a run-off will happen. I believe if the electoral commission organises a free, fair and transparent election, the Opposition MDC will carry the day. At present in Zimbabwe, members of the Opposition are being lynched, intimidated and threatened daily. It is unlikely that, left alone, the electoral commission would have the courage to organise a free, fair and transparent election. These are the genuine fears that one can express.

The situation there requires more intervention from countries from south Africa. Unfortunately South Africa, in particular, gains much from Zimbabwe at present and Zimbabwe owes South Africa colossal sums of money; I cannot even provide the figure. Supplies of oil, food and everything else come from South Africa. President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa is finding it difficult to be up front, open and strict in his dealings with President Mugabe which compounds the issue. We were in Cape Town three weeks ago and availed of the opportunity to discuss this with some African National Congress members. President Mbeki is becoming a lame-duck President, because support has shifted to Mr. Jacob Zuma. President Mbeki no longer has the means to take action against Zimbabwe. That is the position in Zimbabwe at present and it is something we will have to further examine and perhaps with more support from friends we could find an amicable solution.

We have personnel in the Sudan, both police and military troops. They are working hard there and we think they are making some progress.

Chairman

We will have a brief comment from Mr. Ossei-Aidooh as we have others waiting.

The Hon. Mr. Abraham Ossei-Aidooh

A question was asked by Deputy Rory O'Hanlon about the refurbishment of the Parliament. I can assure the committee we are on course with this work. There have been some problems, but work will begin very soon.

Chairman

We could continue the discussion for quite some time, but we have another group with which to meet. I thank the delegation for a very interesting and valuable presentation. I was a great pleasure to meet the delegation and we hope it enjoys the rest of its stay in Ireland. We look forward to continuing and developing our relationship with the delegation and its parliamentary colleagues in future. We have learned a great deal about the progress Ghana has made in recent years and we congratulate the delegation and the Government of Ghana on what has been achieved so far. What we have been told is encouraging and demonstrates the vital role that good governance can play in an open, democratic society. I wish the delegation every success for the remainder of its stay in Ireland and for the forthcoming elections too. We have a second presentation to the committee now and I propose we briefly go into private session to allow our guests to leave.

Sitting suspended at 4.28 p.m. and resumed at 4.30 p.m.