Parliament clears the air over speaker’s garb

The national legislature has corrected media reports on the purpose of a committee created to come up with a common dress code for senior officials of the upper and lower chambers.
This is in reaction to claims by various media sources that the committee was developing a dress code for the Speaker of the National Legislature, Jemma Nunu Kumba.
But the legislature stated the six-member committee has been charged with developing an acceptable dress code for not only the Speaker but also the legal adviser, the clerk, the sergeant-in-arm, and the house attendants.
The committee chaired by Mary Naway, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, is anticipated to report back to parliament within two months.
It is also intended to cooperate cooperatively with other stakeholders in the project.
“In all of Africa and particularly in other parliaments of Africa and also of the globe they always have the Speaker and other officials in the house have a separate code of dressing,” John Agany, the R-TNLA spokesman noted in an Eye Radio broadcast viewed by NCMP.
“It was agreed by the National Legislative Assembly that there should be a unique dress code for the Speaker, Clerk, Legal Advisor and other officials.
“An ad-hoc group was created to come up with a standard form that may be utilized in the National Legislative Assembly jointly with the Council of States.”
Regionally and worldwide, speakers of parliament and their legal advisers and clerks dress differently from other members of parliament in their respective nations.