Speaker of Parliament ,Alban Bagbin
Bagbin insists he’s Ghana’s second most powerful person, not Bawumia
All of us in Ghana cannot have numbers, NPP
NPP says Speaker is overly excited about his position
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has taken a swipe at the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, over the latter’s continuous mentioning of his rank in position in the country.
Addressing a press conference in Sunyani, the party’s General Secretary, John Boadu, intimated that the Speaker has his eyes transfixed on the presidency hence his insistence on being the second gentleman of the land.
Consequently, he urged the Speaker to contest in the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) presidential race in order to secure the flagbearer position to stand a chance at becoming president of the country.
“I think that it is important that if the Speaker wants to be president, he joins again in their presidential race… I think the opportunity is still there for him to join the race as the NDC will open their flagbearership race so that he rather becomes number one, not number two or number three,” he said.
John Boadu also stated that the Speaker was overly excited about his position hence his showoffs.
“The Speaker is not part of the debate, but this Speaker is over-excited about his position because everyone is aware that the constitution mandates the Speaker to be the third gentleman of the land in the absence of the President and the Vice-President.
“A little argument you had with the Majority Leader, you raised shoulders of being the third gentleman of the land. All of us in Ghana cannot have numbers,” he added.
The Speaker, Alban Bagbin, in recent times disclosed that a Justice of the Supreme Court explained to him that he was the second most powerful person in Ghana and not the number 3 as he had earlier claimed in his early days as speaker.
According to him, the unnamed Justice explained to a gathering that included Members of Parliament that to the extent that the governance structure comprised the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary in that order, their respective leaders must be ranked the same.
“When you start from His Excellency the President, you have to go to the Vice before you come to the Speaker and then you go to the Chief Justice,” he said of the known hierarchy.
Then continued: “But we have three arms of government… my colleagues in the Supreme Court told me that actually, you are not number three, you are number two. All those who were present at that meeting were convinced when the Supreme Court judge made the submission and justified it.
“It is not me saying it. I have said I am number three but they said I am number two. The three arms of government – the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary – are equal arms of government, and must be treated as such.”