If the administration plans to restore the Agyapa agreement in the upcoming Mid-Year Budget Review, Minority Chief Whip Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka has advised the government to brace for the worst.
According to him, the government's desire to get the Agyapa Minerals Royalty agreement through would face even more opposition than the minority's objection to the ETL (E-Levy).
Muntaka went on to say that the minority caucus will reject the Agyapa contract outright since the administration has failed to address the concerns made about it when it was initially tabled in the chamber.
"I just want people to understand one thing: we battled to get it removed from the budget, and now that it's not in the budget, someone will say they'll bring it up again in the Mid-Year Budget Review." I'm not going to tell you what we're going to do right now.
"Believe me, if they try to bring this item up, they will face the strongest opposition ever seen in any Parliament." I'm not threatening you; I'm simply saying that if you believe you can just go into this House with Agyapa, you better prepare for the worst," he stated on JoyNews' PM Express.
In addition, the minority chief whip, who is also an Asawase Member of Parliament, noted that once the contract was withdrawn from Parliament, the administration was unable to effectively engage stakeholders in order to obtain consensus for ratification.
Muntaka also decried opinion leaders' apparent quiet on the Agyapa transaction. He describes their quiet as "loud."
"Because you see, we've realized that – I'm sorry to say this — a lot of our country's old so-called thought leaders have gone completely mute." Because of their massive and deafening silence, we have no choice but to take the battle and prevent Agyapa from ever happening in the first place," he stated.
Many things must alter, he said, for the proposal to have a chance in the House. "If they want anything about our minerals, one, change the name, and two, let it go through a strong process in parliament where people can come and express their views, whether in the mining sector, nananom, so that Parliament can own that we can do this," he said.
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