Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin
The Majority in Parliament have openly disagreed with Speaker of the House Alban Bagbin on the issue of his recent order asking the Roads and Transport Minister to reverse an administrative order halting the collection of road tolls nationwide.
The Speaker this week ruled that the toll suspension was contained in a budget that had yet to be passed by Parliament hence it was improper for Kwasi Amoako-Atta to give any directives over the issue.
The issue was originally raised by Minority Leader, Haruna Idrissu, before the Speaker ruled thus: “It is a proposal they are presenting to us to approve to take effect January 2022. And so until this budget is approved, all that is contained in the budget are proposals. We have the authority to approve.
“They have been given the authority pursuant to Article 179 to prepare and lay before the House. So those are policy proposals that the minister has presented to the House. Until they are approved, nobody has the authority to start implementing something that doesn’t exist. That amounts to a disrespect of the House,” a statement from the speaker noted.
His view was openly challenged by Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who explained that the move was to avert clashes at the toll booths where motorists and collectors were likely to clash. The Ministry later issued a statement that said the decision was to avert violent incidents.
But this is not the first time Bagbin has been openly challenged by the Majority bloc or by Majority MPs. GhanaWeb recalls two other instances of open disagreement.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonus disagrees over Bagbin’s position on LGBTQ+
In October this year, Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu challenged the open declaration by Speaker Bagbin that the house will pass the “Promotion of Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021,” known as the anti_LGBTQ+ Bill.
According to the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, since Bagbin was not a Parliamentarian it was better he desisted from such pronouncements of people so properly elected.
“The Speaker can make a referral to Parliament which will be programmed by the business committee for consideration. I will find it difficult if we have a Speaker who will in spite of his own antecedent as former MP to say that Parliament is going to pass the bill. It is a bit of a difficulty.
“I am not saying that Parliament is not going to pass the bill but the Speaker should not make a predetermination for the house because he is not a Member of Parliament and this is the business of Parliament.”
Majority slams Speaker for refusing to release ‘wanted’ Madina MP
On November 4, 2021, there were feisty scenes in Parliament after the Majority called a press conference to criticize the Speaker of Parliament for his refusal to grant police leave to question Madina MP Francis-Xavier Sosu over alleged criminal offenses.
The MP was the subject of a Police probe at the time seeking his cooperation for alleged acts of violence and destruction during a protest he led on October 25 against bad roads in his constituency.
The statement read by Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin read in part: “The Majority Leadership views the foregoing response by Speaker Bagbin as a troubling departure from how his predecessors handled such requests.
“To avoid doubt, when both Rt Hons Joyce Bamford Addo and Edward Doe Adjaho received those requests during their days in office, they responded by inviting the relevant MPs, held discussions with them, and then asked them to report to the requesting Police or investigative authorities.”
It added “Now the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Rt Hon Bagbin, appears to be instituting new rules that seem to undermine the Rule of Law without any prior discussions with the Leadership of the House. We ask: What exactly has changed?”
The Minority hit back accusing the Minority of aiming to undermine the Speaker, whose ruling on the issue a week prior had enjoyed support from both sides of the House.
Retired Bagbin’s rise to Speakership
On January 7, 2021, as the current Parliament convened to elect a speaker, his name popped up as the preferred candidate by the main opposition National Democratic Congress as against the candidature of the then outgoing speaker, Aaron Mike Oquaye, of the governing New Patriotic Party.
After a rancorous voting process which involved shouting and hurling of invectives by Members of Parliament-elect, kicking of voting booths and snatching of ballot papers, not to talk of a military invasion of the chamber, Alban Bagbin was elected speaker.
Whiles the NDC insists he won the vote outright, the NPP said he was a consensus candidate between the two sides of the house. The NPP agreed to play ball because they had a presidential inauguration to attend, which event the Minority had said they will boycott.