The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has told the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Prof. Aaron Michael Oquaye, under no circumstances can he prevent his group from expressing their views on important national issues.
In his view, the Speaker’s continuous refusal to recognise the Minority Caucus to share their views on issues that are brought before Parliament for deliberations is uncalled for.
He said under no circumstances can the Speaker deny them their right to speak on issues, cautioning that such acts will trigger a reaction that may not be palatable from his group.
“Mr. Speaker, you see – you are the Chair of this House. You must hold us together. We all know that if you didn’t want us to continue – nobody has an objection to what we are doing. In the history of petroleum tax, I even did a press conference. We spoke on it. It is a good thing to do, so, if I rose, Mr. Speaker, you owe me. I didn’t want to ever disrespect you. But if you invite me, I will”, he fumed.
Mr. Iddrisu sent this warning signal when he failed to catch the eye of the Speaker during the consideration and subsequent approval of the Special Petroleum Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018, Thursday.
It all started just when the Speaker had put the question on whether the report of the Finance Committee on the Special Petroleum Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018, should be approved or rejected when the the Minority Chief, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka raised an objection that there number in the chamber was not enough to deliberate on such an important national issue.
He was interjected by the Majority Leader who argued that the House had gone pass that stage and that he, Muntaka should have raised such as issue before the Speaker puts the question.
This forced the Minority Leader to stand on his feet, thinking that he would catch the eye of the Speaker to further push through the concern raised by Muntaka.
But despite being on his feet, the Speaker did not recognise him and went ahead to rule on the question that was put before members.
This triggered his anger, and cautioned the Speaker not to deny the Minority their rights to share the views on issues that are brought before the House.