He’s been perhaps the most vilified Speaker of Ghana’s 7th Parliament of the 4th Republic. The accusations rain from both ends of the House. Hon Bagbin’s own NDC would not spare him the ordeal of being characterized an NPP renegade. From the perspective of the NPP, Bagbin is only entrenching the bias that has come to be linked with all Speakers we’ve had in the Fourth Republic.
Isn’t ironic that Bagbin, a die in the wool NDC member should suffer an accusation that is often labelled Speakers from the stable of the ruling party? The Hon Bagbin is the only Speaker to have assumed the highest office from the minority wing of the House. All of his predecessors were from the Majority divide. Name them: Justice D.F. Annan; majority NDC; Peter Ala Adjetey majority NPP; Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi-Hughes, majority NPP; Joyce Bamford Addo and Doe Adjaho, majority NDC and Prof Mike Oquaye, majority NPP.
So why is Bagbin not finding favour with any one of the sides—majority and the minority. For the majority NPP, the fact that the minority managed to get Bagbin onto the seat of Speaker meant a major coup staged to scuttle their strength in the House. On the part of the minority NDC, Bagbin’s position was good for them to carry through their opposition agenda; and are therefore shocked that the Speaker is refusing to heed to their partisan calls. How wrong they’ve all been proven. The Speaker has shown fairness and objectivity to his duty call, thus arousing the wrath of almost every member of the legislature.
Of course, the circumstances that produced and cleared him to be the House Speaker, showed that the Rt. Hon Bagbin made it all by himself to become the first known opposition party member to superintend over a Parliament House dominated by a rival party. That in itself, seemed an aberration to the long standing practice scripted since 1993. None of the Speakers’ in the 4th Republic has been boxed-in, in a manner like Bagbin’s. There was a vote conducted on his stewardship; and he won, beating incumbent, Prof. Mike Oquaye to the seat.
That was the first time the Speaker position was contested for. In the case of the others, the majority had their say, exploiting their numerical strength. So Justice D.F Annan, would become the first Speaker of the 4th Republic at the instance of then majority NDC. The Rt. Hon Peter Ala-Adjetey, the second Speaker of the dispensation under President Kufuor’s NPP tried playing it decent and objective. He would pay for his “sins”. He was replaced by Lawyer Ebenezer Sekyi-Hughes in the 2nd term of that administration. With Ala-Adjetey’s unhealthy precedent, all others who followed, would toe the partisan line to safe their jobs. It was a decision that made the cut, an easy passage to end their terms with the sitting administrations.
Justice Joyce Bamford Addo, Hon. Doe Adjaho and Prof Mike Oquaye all played it safe to protect their jobs; their parties and their administrations. Such speaker-ship loyalty has been the hallmark of almost all democratic dispensations we’ve had even prior to independent. The Right Hon Emmanuel Charles Quist, served as Speaker from 1951 to 1957 and although he served in a rather awkward period of colonial rule, many believed he played a significant role that sped up Ghana’s independence. Others like Justices Nii Armaah Ollenu, 2nd Republic; Griffiths Reindolf, 3rd Republic were obedient to a fault, serving their respective Progressive Party (PP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) administrations.
The drama that preceded his selection as House Speaker perhaps should have offered an inclination how the Bagbin’s era would be different from the rest. For the first time, all 270 MPs had an input into Bagbin’s selection process. His election as Speaker was consumed in pure drama. When everyone thought Members of Parliament were going to vote on partisan lines, someone betrayed the cause of the of the NPP by voting for Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin to become the Speaker ahead of the much favoured Prof Mike Oquaye, who was gunning for a second term. The Hon Bagbin, unlike his predecessors, has had the most difficult of jobs chairing a chamber that has no clear cut majority and is split thinly on party lines.
Surely, it’s a precedent that anyone scripting a novelty like this, will be confronted with all manner of issues, problems and often time warped interpretations of his actions and decisions. This is a deviation from the past, where the job of the previous Speakers was cut out distinctively for them because of the backing they enjoyed from their majority MPs. With such majority deciding the direction of the House, the Speakers only became umpires seeing to it that the majority decisions became the law. Although there was some degree of resistance from the minority, their stance was mostly recorded for the sake of history.
The split composition of the 7th Parliament has thrown out different perspectives in the House. More so, when this is the first time, both opposition and majority are presenting an equal representation of 137 each with the NPP being made one richer by the decision of the Fomena MP to pitch camp with the Majority NPP. Since then, any ruling by Speaker Bagbin, has been interpreted purely from a partisan standpoint. The NPP MPs were first to throw salvos at Speaker Bagbin, blaming him for the impasse that was generated over the controversial E-Levy tax. The NPP boycotted the debate preceding the E-Levy at the crucial time, necessitating an NDC induced one-sided disapproval of the E-Levy tax system.
The NPP would not agree with the Speaker’s handling of the issue and therefore sought to overturn the Speaker’s ruling at the next sitting. It was made all the simple and smooth because, the Rt. Hon Bagbin had traveled abroad for medical check-up. Indeed, the 1st Deputy Speaker— Joseph Osei-Wusu, overturned the ruling of the substantive Speaker. That has never happened before in the House Chamber. Since then, the Speaker has been complaining about how his colleagues, especially those from the NPP are undermining his authority with others, in the leadership of the majority showing disrespect for his seat and office.
He also had problems with his own NDC. Hon Bagbin’s crime? The NDC MPs claimed his , preceding the second voting on the vexatious subject suggested he was in favour of the passage of the E-Levy tax regime. According to the Hon. Speaker, his information is that Ghana faces serious economic crunch and therefore, there was the need to take non-partisan approach to the issue. And indeed, in his estimation, if the country does not consider critically the issues of the economy on non-party lines, we may have a total break in the economy within the next three months.
The only option that the government has touted as possible remedy to the economic mess is the approval of the E-Levy tax. In the estimation of the NDC folks, the fact that Hon Bagbin’s position seems to be in conformity with that of the government, means the Rt. Hon. Speaker supports the E-Levy, which to all intents and purposes was vehemently opposed by the NDC. But the man has made it clear that although he cannot be neutral, he will be very objective and fair to all sides, implying he doesn’t sit there as an NPP nor NDC Speaker; but the Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament. Can someone respect him for playing to the tenets of Parliamentary Democracy?
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