Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin
Former National Democratic Congress (NDC), Member of Parliament (MP), Ras Mubarak, has slammed the Daily Guide newspaper for publishing a story claiming that the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin had spent $600,000 on his medical care abroad.
The former legislator in an opinion piece described the publication as a hatchet job pushed by the NPP to tarnish the image of the Speaker.
He also slammed the Majority for staging a walkout during the final day on the debate of the budget.
He opined that even if the story was true, the Speaker was entitled to medical care just as the President, his Vice, the Chief Justice and all other Article 71 Office holders.
He questioned why the paper has failed to publish the cost of medical bills of the President and his Vice as well as the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta.
“This is a paper whose sponsors do not even have the decency to answer parliamentary questions on how the Presidency and Ministry of Finance are spending public funds.
Bagbin has not spent $600,000 in medical bills, and even if t were true, just like the President, Vice, and the Chief Justice of the republic, it is part of the conditions of his office as Speaker of Parliament.”
Read his full opinion below
Daily Guide’s Hatchet Job on Bagbin is Dead On Arrival
It was the celebrated Reggae icon Peter Tosh, who said in his 1983 song ‘Glasshouse,’ that, “..If you live in a glasshouse, don’t throw stones. And If you can’t take blows brother don’t throw blows…”
The NPP as a party and government feel throwing mud at Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin is what would help their Leaders in parliament redeem themselves from the embarrassment that characterized their disgraceful walkout which led to a rejection of the 2022 Budget.
The NPP’s Daily Guide has put out this story claiming that the Speaker of Parliament has spent $600,000 on his medical treatment so far. This is nothing but a figment of someone’s imagination to cause public disaffection for the Speaker because he did not pander to the egos of MPs from the government benches.
They had walked out on the last day of the budget debate expecting Bagbin to adjourn the House so they could whip in their members for the next sitting of parliament. When we all know some of their Ministers and MPs who were receiving treatment abroad were flown in against the advice of doctors as some of them had not fully recovered.
We all know even if Bagbin had adjourned, they still would not have the numbers by next week or even two. And in their drunken stupor, what they forgot was that they had continued with proceedings of Parliament under the Rt Hon. Speaker Mike Ocquaye in the 7th Parliament on occasions when the Minority had walked out.
More so, there’s no rule or law which says that when one side of the House walks out, the Speaker must adjourn till the next day.
You go and lose a fight in Parliament, then you decide to play dirty, not even with facts but lies. Assuming that it were the case, is the Speaker of Parliament, like the Chief Justice, President and Vice President not entitled to be taken care of by the state?
Is the Daily Guide minded, since they’ve been tasked to do a hatchet job, to find out how much in medical bills has the state spent on the President, Vice President, Chief Justice and Majority Leader of Parliament? Are they interested in letting the public know the shocking medical bills of Prof. Mike Ocquaye over the last four years? Is the Daily Guide interested in why an MP for Lower West Akim, vacated his seat in the 7th Parliament for more than two years and yet a bi-election was not declared? Why has the Daily Guide not reported on how much the state has spent so far in Minister Ken Ofori Atta’s medical bills.
This is a paper whose sponsors do not even have the decency to answer parliamentary questions on how the Presidency and Ministry of Finance are spending public funds.
Bagbin has not spent $600,000 in medical bills, and even if t were true, just like the President, Vice, and the Chief Justice of the republic, it is part of the conditions of his office as Speaker of Parliament.
Instead of throwing mud, they should be asking Leadership of the NPP in Parliament to step aside, for failing to lead at a time leadership was required. They should focus their energies on getting Ken Ofori Atta to incorporate concessions in a new budget, to be presented in the shortest possible time. Diverting attention from the rejection of the budget underscores how out of touch the NPP and the Daily Guide are.
RM