- “Now, I don’t belong to any party. I’m Speaker of Ghana. I’m not a Speaker of NPP. I’m not a Speaker of NDC. I’m Speaker of Ghana. And I must hold the balance. So, decision-taking; no. My duty is to ensure that there’s an even playing field and the decision is taken and I announce it. That is all."
Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has served notice to members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that they will be disappointed if they assume he will use his office to serve the party’s interest in the House.
According to him, the Speaker’s position is to serve the interest of the country and not the party (NDC) that sponsored his nomination.
The former MP for Nadowli-Kaleo was responding to the national communications officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, who felt the opposition leadership in Parliament including Bagbin betrayed the party by approving some ‘rejected’ ministerial nominees of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
“Some have sold their conscience but ours is intact. And we can work together to rebuild the party from the ashes of 3 March 2021, which I call ‘Black Wednesday’ – our day of self-inflicted shame,” Gyamfi posted on Facebook.
“This is the time for us to insist on the right changes in the leadership of the NDC group in Parliament or forget about them completely. The current leadership have lost their moral authority to lead and are not fit to sit on the front bench of the NDC side of the House.
“More importantly, it’s about time we understood that we don’t have any NDC Speaker of Parliament. No, we don’t! We have a Speaker who rode on the back of the NDC into office to pursue his own parochial agenda and nothing more. You trust them at your own peril,” Gyamfi told party supporters.
However, reacting to the post, Bagbin said: “Recently in the media, on social media, in particular, you have heard the blistering attack on me when I did not play any role apart from presiding [over the business of the house]”.
“Because I say I belong or came from a party, does he [Sammy Gyamfi] think I’m at the beck and call of the party?” Bagbin told Accra-based Class FM.
Speaker of Ghana
He added: “Now, I don’t belong to any party. I’m Speaker of Ghana. I’m not a Speaker of NPP. I’m not a Speaker of NDC. I’m Speaker of Ghana. And I must hold the balance. So, decision-taking; no. My duty is to ensure that there’s an even playing field and the decision is taken and I announce it. That is all.
“And, so, if you sit down and look at me and think that maybe you were my girlfriend before [and, therefore] I should give you an advantage over another who I’ve never met, please, then don’t come to me; you won’t get it. Let’s finish; after work, we can do that business together. Not when I’m working. That’s my nature; that’s how I’ve been up to this time and, so, it’s unfortunate that these things are happening.”
Bagbin makes history for being the first Speaker of Parliament who is not selected by the governing party under the Fourth Republic.
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