Don’t blame me for your problems – Bagbin replies Majority

The Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has said that Parliament can operate smoothly if both sides of the house resort to consultation and dialogue.

According to him, he will continue as a Speaker to enforce the standing orders of the house to the latter.

So claims that he’s being difficult and not helping government business will continue to be the case because he is not ready to band the rules.

He noted that the country’s Majority in Parliament has had problems with him because over the years Ghana has never experienced a Parliament with a slim Majority.

“Both belong to the same party and they cannot both occupy the Deputy Speaker of Parliament position. It is not me saying it, it is the 1992 constitution saying it. It is this independent member who was a former member of the party in power that they want to draw their strenght from.

I am the speaker, I don’t take part in the decisions but it is my duty to enforce the rules and the law and in trying to do this definitely in a country that is used to the tumultuous majoritarian government will definitely meet resistance but these are the problems of change and transformation. I think that the only way as he himself said was to get the two sides to consult more, to dialogue, to cooperate with each other, to compromise, to collaborate and to achieve consensus”.

First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu says, the government may never be able to rely on the Speaker, Alban Bagbin for successful government business.

He says the majority caucus has to take advantage of the one majority they have knowing that the speaker cannot be relied upon.

The Member of Parliament for Bekwai was speaking at the ongoing capacity building workshop organized for the Majority Caucus in the Eastern Region.