Dr Samuel Adu Gyamfi, the former head of history and political science at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has called on Parliament to vehemently condemn and distance itself from the comments by Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, general secretary of the National Democratic Congress.
Nketiah called on Minority MPs to resort to violence in the event the Majority side decides to “bend the rules” to get the controversial E-Levy passed.
“So long as impunity will not stop, resistance has been imposed on us as a duty,” he said while addressing the party’s youth wing in the Ashanti Region over the weekend.
“If a Deputy Speaker decides to vote [during proceedings] and at the same time play the role of a referee, don’t hesitate to slap him to keep him on track.”
Condemn it
But speaking to Beatrice Adu on The Big Bulletin on Monday (7 February), Gyamfi said that although Parliament has had its own share of problems, the august House must not countenance such intemperate language.
“Even though in recent times the House has degenerated into something else, the House and its norm really, will not support any such act that seems to push for social dissonance, a conflict that is to engineer processes that will halt the proceedings and activities of the House,” Gyamfi said.
He added: “…So, Parliament must vehemently, both the Majority and Minority should come out to dissociate themselves from this kind of commentary which comes from Asiedu Nketiah.”
Also, he indicated that political communication is a powerful tool and those who wield that power must exercise decorum in their utterances.
Retract comment
“In diplomacy, it is always important that language, communication, political communication for that matter is very critical. In as much as we can use a pen to increase conflict, from time to time, men have used miscommunication to also cause situations to degenerate,” he said.
Gyamfi further urged the general secretary of the NDC to retract his comments and render an unqualified apology to Ghanaians.
“As a matter of fact, I would want to suggest or advise that Asiedu Nketiah should come out, he should retract his statement and better still apologise to the people of this country,” he added.
Nicholas Brown
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