Blakk Rasta Hot… Over Ganja MPs

Popular reggae musician and radio presenter, Abubakar Ahmed, popularly known in entertainment circles as Blakk Rasta of Hitz FM - an Accra-based radio station – has incurred the wrath of Members of Parliament (MPs) over his recent comments that they smoke Indian hemp popularly called wee.

Parliament yesterday sternly warned that it would not hesitate to ‘crack its whip’ on any member of the public whose acts of omissions or commissions would bring the institution or its members into disrepute. According the MPs, the institution is the pillar of democracy that has brought about unfettered freedom to Ghanaians.

The stern warning follows Blakk Rasta's comments on Hitz FM that 80 percent of MPs smoke wee – a statement that has angered the MPs so much that they have also summoned him before the Privileges Committee, making such invitations two in less than three days.

The first one in the week was to Prof Alex Dodoo of University of Ghana Medical School for saying that MPs were ignorant about the Ebola vaccine trial in the country when the members kicked against the vaccine trial in the Volta Region.

Blakk Rasta was said to have categorically stated that 80% of MPs, including the president of the Republic of Ghana, smoke marijuana otherwise known as ‘wee’ but are refusing to support his campaign for Ghana to legalise the smoking of the substance.

The publication was brought to the attention of the Speaker of Parliament on Wednesday by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Afigya Sekyere East, Henrric David Yeboah, who called on the House to act swiftly to save its image.

Raising the issue on the floor of the House yesterday, the Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin, said the comment made by Blakk Rasta was very derogatory and breaches the privileges of Parliament, amounting to contempt of Parliament as provided in Articles 122 and 123 of the 1992 Constitution.

“Mr Speaker, I strongly believe that about 90% of us do not smoke cigarette, let alone smoke wee, which is even criminalised by our laws,” he said, stressing that the import of Blakk Rasta’s comment was that 80% of MPs are also criminals.

According to Bagbin, the institution of Parliament must be respected because that is where the people’s representatives have been voted to assemble to take decisions in their (people's) interest.

He said in a democracy, the highest certificate and honour is the vote of the people and that all MPs in Parliament have been entrusted with the trust and destiny of their constituents.

“Mr Speaker, I think Parliament must also begin to invoke its powers like the judiciary when it comes to acts of contempt against it,” he said, stressing that MPs as members of the second arm of government are stoutly being protected by the Constitution – which is the supreme law of the land – and the Standing Orders of Parliament.

“Mr Speaker, let’s start applying the laws because our reluctance to apply the laws that protect us is fuelling indiscipline in the society where people use the radio and the social media to make all sorts of derogatory comments about Parliament,” the majority leader charged.

Deputy Minority Leader, Dominic Nitiwul, said Blakk Rasta should quickly be hauled before the Privileges Committee to prove that 225 members of the House, that make up the 80%, indeed smoke a banned substance like wee.

The Speaker, Edward Doe Adjaho, tasked the Privileges Committee, which has the powers of a High Court, to summon Blakk Rasta as well as managers of the radio station on which he made that comment as well as the newspaper which published it, and present its recommendations to the House in two weeks' time.

By Thomas Fosu Jnr