Gt-vodafone deal sealed;after Atta Mills' protest march

After days of continuous delays, demonstrations and encounters, Parliament yesterday finally gave the Government of Ghana the go-ahead to offload 70 per cent of its shares in Ghana Telecom to Vodafone UK for $900m.

The ratification of the Agreement came two days after a protest march had been organized in Accra by the Committee for Joint Action - a pressure group made up of the opposition National Democratic Congress and its allies.

Led by the NDC flagbearer, John Evans Atta Mills, who was supposed to have been at a forum held by the Trades Union Congress at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology for all the Presidential candidates, the CJA demonstrated against the sale of government's shares in GT.

A top businessman (name withheld) confided in The Statesman that he did not understand the reason why Mills should recklessly squander an opportunity he was offered by the TUC to come and outline his programme in respect of job creation for the youth and other related issues before millions of Ghanaians, and rather chose to go on a demonstration before some thousands of people.

Parliament, which was on recess, came back to deliberate on the amended GT-Vodafone Sale Agreement. When the debate was held in the House, it was engulfed in a lot of noise, cat-calls and heckling from the Majority and the Minority sides as well as members of the public who were seated in the public gallery.

After the debate from both sides of the political divide had ended, the Speaker, Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, who found it very difficult to control the heckling on the floor, put the matter to vote and the 'Ayes' won, but the Minority Leader, Alban Bagbin, called for a head count to be conducted.

When it was done the Majority won the head count by 124 as against 74 by the Minority side.

Speaking to the motion on the floor, Members from the Minority side namely, Haruna Iddrisu (Tamale Central), Edward Salia (Jirapa), John Mahama (Bole Bamboi), Doe Adjaho (Avenor Ave) among others, indicated that they did not object to the privatization of any government entity, but they felt that the value of $900m was inadequate.

According to them, though the privatization of GT was not a bad idea, they felt it was not in the best interest of the nation for government to bundle the fibre optic back bone, fixed line services, and Onetouch together and trade them all off for $900m because the amount, to them, was pea nut.

According to them, since the government of Ghana had been the 100 per cent share holder in GT, it must be blamed totally for GT's debts and woes, insisting that it was government's mismanagement over the last decade that had rendered that entity profitless.

All of them therefore, called for a total rejection of the deal.

But the Members on the Majority side, namely Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister for Defence; Opare Ansah, Deputy Minister of Communication; Asamoah-Boateng, Minister for Information and Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, insisted that the deal was the best for GT, saying that since most telephone companies are merging with bigger companies to survive, it would be preposterous to leave GT on its own to compete with some major providers of telephone services, especially with respect to mobile telephony.

"We are aware of the political implications of everything; let us move forward; Ghana has got one of the best deals. Mr. Speaker, we are moving forward. There is no better offer". These were the exact words of Kwadwo Baah Wiredu when he was called upon by the Speaker to wind up.

The question was then posed and the 'Ayes' won, but due to protests from the Minority Leader, there was a head-count and the Majority won amidst shouts of 'Agbenaa' (to wit, it's all over) and the 'kangaroo' dance by the Majority.

The Majority Leader therefore called for adjournment and the end of the special sitting which started on Tuesday, 12 August, 2008.

The Government of Ghana was 100 percent holder of Ghana Telecom shares until the NDC divested 30% to Telekom Malaysia, leaving 70% shares which had been held by the Government until Parliament ratified the Agreement to sell it (70%) to Vodafone, a British Telecommunications company.