Afenyo-Markin Vexes Minority In Parliament, Made To Retract Statement About NDC Women MPs Lacking Courage

• The Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has been criticised for saying minority women MPs lack courage
• Afenyo-Markin had observed that no women MP from the minority side contributed to the debate on the mid-year budget
• The Deputy Majority Leader eventually retracted his comments after protests from the Minority legislators

The Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, was made to apologise and retract comments about the women MPs on the minority side lacking courage.

During the debate on the mid-year budget in Parliament on Wednesday, Afenyo-Markin observed that no women from the minority had contributed to the debate.

He said this was in contrast to three women from the majority side contributing to the debate.

"No woman [on the Minoiry side] had the courage to insist that leadership should allow her to speak and indeed, that is a fact," the MP said.

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Backlash from minority

The Deputy Majority Leader's comments sparked protests from the Minority.

The Ada MP, Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe-Ghansah, described Afenyo-Markin's comments as "very unfortunate and very disappointing."

"We women on this side are so courageous that there is nothing that we cannot comment on," she insisted.

The Adaklu MP, Kwame Agbodza, suggested that Afenyo-Markin's comments were disrespectful and called on him to retract them.

“Mr. Speaker, if you respect women, you will not speak about women like that. There are courageous women here," he said.

He also insisted that the minority side also had courageous women.

Afenyo-Markin chastised in the past

YEN.com.gh has reported on past occasions where Afenyo-Markin has been made to walk back on specific actions.

In 2021, he was compelled to apologise for using the wrong image to describe the sand wining situation in Keta.

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According to him, the image he relied on was based on an article that reported sand-winning activities in the Volta Region as the root cause of the tidal wave flooding.

Afenyo-Markin lauded for performances

The controversies notwithstanding, Afenyo-Markin is well regarded in Parliament.

YEN.com.gh reported that he has been noted as one of the best-performing MPs by Ghanaians.

He was listed alongside the likes of Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and Francis-Xavier Sosu.

Source: YEN.com.gh