Accra, June 10, GNA – Members of Parliament (MPs) on Thursday welcomed the announcement from Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin to take a day off, and go into their constituencies to take part in a national tree planting exercise dubbed: “Green Ghana.”
“Green Ghana” is an initiative to plant five million trees in a single day across the country. The tree planting exercise is slated for Friday, June 11, 2021.
Speaker Bagbin said: “I want to take this opportunity to entreat Members of Parliament to participate in the tree-planting exercise across the country. All parliamentarians are encouraged to plant trees in their constituencies.”
To allow Members enough time to be able to travel to their constituencies, the House, which was sitting beyond 1400 hours in recent days, closed earlier.
The Speaker said: “As a result of that today (Thursday) will be a very short day. Parliament will adjourn by two, to allow Members to travel to their constituencies to lead the tree-planting exercise.”
The Speaker directed the Clerk to Parliament to prepare a budget to cover the cost of the MPs’ travel to, and from their constituencies, to participate in the national exercise.
Ahead of the exercise, workers working on the lush and green on the precincts of the House were busily seen raking dry weeds on lawns and other green areas of the House.
Speaker Bagbin announced that as his constituency was the whole of Ghana, he would lead the exercise to plant trees on the precincts of Parliament House.
“Since my constituency is the whole of Ghana, I’ll lead the exercise to green the enclave of Parliament,”
he said.
“I want to, on behalf of Parliament, and on my own behalf, pledge our collective support for the Green Ghana Day. I personally will lead the team in Parliament in the precincts of Parliament,” he said.
The Speaker recalled the Biblical account of the beginning of creation of the Book of Genesis, where green vegetation was a beauty to behold, but had rather been plundered by the action and inaction of man.
Speaker Bagbin said it was necessary to recapture the lost greenery for the present and future generations and exclaimed: “Greening Ghana, let’s go!”
GNA