- "I have never seen this in any parliament in our continent, the parties can disagree but usually the Speaker and his duties are usually united , and if you go to some of our neighbouring countries , they have about 5 or 6 deputies speakers , you dont have this kind of confusion we have."
- "That office is the institution of our republic, and its sanctity must be protected, so that we dont set a very bad precedence maybe in future we might have somebody who is from the other side and then you know , some of this could be cited as precedence that happened in the Eight Parliament and that gives justification for other people to do something else."
Dr Rasheed Draman, the executive director of the Africa Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) has described the tension in Ghana’s Parliament as very sad and worrying.
It comes after the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin took a swipe at his first deputy Joseph Osei-Owusu for consistently overturning his rulings.
“It’s very sad, because what we are seeing is that, it looks like the division between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is spilling into the office of the Speaker. And here when I say office of the Speaker, I am talking about the Speaker and his two deputies, so that is quite sad,” Draman told The Asaase Breakfast Show on Thursday (24 February).
“I have never seen this in any Parliament in our continent. The parties can disagree but usually the Speaker and his deputies are usually united, and if you go to some of our neighbouring countries, they have about five or six deputy speakers. You don’t have this kind of confusion we have,” he said in conversation with Kwaku Nhyira-Addo.
“That office is the institution of our Republic, and its sanctity must be protected, so that we don’t set a very bad precedence. Maybe in future we might have somebody who is from the other side and then you know, some of this could be cited as precedence that happened in the eighth Parliament and that gives justification for other people to do something else,” Draman said.
It’s illegal, offensive and unconstitutional to overturn my rulings
The Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has taken a swipe at his first deputy Joseph Osei-Owusu for consistently overturning his rulings.
The Speaker has described Osei-Owusu‘s actions as “unconstitutional, illegal and offensive”.
The Speaker on 23 February 2022, expressed his displeasure at his deputy who dismissed a motion by the Minority on Tuesday after Bagbin had initially admitted the motion.
The Minority had requested the House to constitute a bipartisan committee to investigate the COVID-19 expenditures by the government since 2019.
However, Osei-Owusu who was presiding at the time after listening to the arguments from both sides dismissed the motion on procedural grounds.
The Speaker in a strong-worded statement at the commencement of sitting today [23 February 2022] indicated that he will have a meeting with his deputies to put an end to the recurring anomaly.
“The penchant of the First Deputy Speaker [Joe Osei-Owusu] to overrule my ruling is, to say the least, unconstitutional, illegal, and offensive. Be that as it may, I shall not be taking any steps to overrule the decision of the First Deputy Speaker to dismiss the motion as moved by the Hon. Ranking Member of the Finance Committee,” he said.
Bagbin indicated that this is the second time the First Deputy Speaker has taken the chair to overrule his earlier ruling after the Speaker had made a decision to disapprove the 2022 budget statement.
He said: “This is the second time the First Deputy Speaker has taken the chair and has made a ruling whose effect was to overrule a position I have earlier on established before the House,” he stated.
The ACEPA boss, however, commended the Speaker for not overturning the ruling of his deputy.
Fred Dzakpata
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