<\/p>\n
Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin and Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n THE MINORITY Chief Whip, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, has deployed an epithet against the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, calling him a dictator.<\/p>\n According to him, the Speaker is gradually turning the parliamentary chamber into a palace by increasingly becoming intolerant to disagreement.<\/p>\n \u201cI am sorry to say this. When you want to turn the Chamber of Parliament into a palace, then you become a tyrant. He is becoming a tyrant.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are not a chief; you are supposed to be the Speaker of Parliament, and a Speaker listens to both sides patiently even where there is a disagreement, and that is the essence of democracy, to sometimes even agree to disagree,\u201d he stated on Accra-based Joy News<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Mr. Muntaka, who is also the NDC MP for Asawase, continued, \u201cBut when you personalise it and make it to look as if a disagreement is a disrespect to you or is an affront to you or it\u2019s like denigrating you, then I\u2019m sorry, you will be a bad Speaker.\u201d<\/p>\n The Minority Chief Whip was expressing his disappointment with the setting up of an ad-hoc committee that investigated the issues contained in the censure motion against Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.<\/p>\n He had openly demonstrated his disagreement with the Speaker on the floor of the House by exchanging words with him during the setting up of the committee.<\/p>\n Muntaka said even though Mr. Bagbin remains his favourite Speaker, his predecessor, Prof. Mike Aaron Oquaye was better at building consensus during his tenure.<\/p>\n He described the ad-hoc committee set up to investigate issues in the censure motion as a kangaroo committee, suggesting that it was an unnecessary process.<\/p>\n In his view, Speaker Bagbin acted beyond his powers when he created the eight-member committee to probe the censure motion.<\/p>\n The NDC MP said the Standing Orders of Parliament does not allow the Speaker to create an ad-hoc committee when a member of the House has not proposed so.<\/p>\n \u201cThat committee was not necessary. Our Standing Orders are very clear and I encourage you to read 106 of our Standing Orders. It is a member who would say that maybe where we have reached in the debate, can we set up a committee to look at the details and report, not for a Speaker to unilaterally refer the thing to a committee and set up a committee to do that,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n He intimated that such a proposal could have come from a member of the Majority Caucus, adding, \u201cAs at the time when the decision was taken, we were 135 and they were 77.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo, if any member on their side had moved for such a committee to be set up, it would have been defeated because it would have been a decision of the House where we\u2019ll vote,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n Muntaka said, \u201cAnd probably, in my view, it was the reason that kind of kangaroo method was used. And I continue to call it kangaroo because in Order 6 where the Standing Order is not explicitly clear, then the Speaker\u2019s discretion can come in.\u201d<\/p>\n He argued that where the Standing Order is clear on any issue, the Speaker has no discretion or authority to do anything on the contrary.<\/p>\n A political desk report<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin and Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka \u00a0 THE MINORITY Chief Whip, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, has deployed an epithet against the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, calling him a dictator. According to him, the Speaker is gradually turning the parliamentary chamber into a palace by increasingly becoming intolerant to disagreement. \u201cI am sorry to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1265070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1265069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1265069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1265069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1265069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1265069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}