Speaker Angry Again?

It appears members of parliament are making the work of the Right Honorable Speaker, Doe Adjaho quite challenging for him.

The Speaker on two occasions have cautioned members of parliament for conducts he described as "unparliamentary" on the floor of parliament.

The first happened on the day the president appeared before the House to present the state of the nation address when members sought to interject the presentation with shouts and heckles.

During proceedings on Thursday, the Speaker could not harbour the misconduct of the honorable legislators but to call them to order.

This happened when the member of parliament for Assin Central, Hon Kennedy Agyapong was on his feet commenting on the 2016 state of the nation address by President Mahama a week ago.

He showed receipts of his electricity bills of three months which had saw wide increments from November 2015 to January 2016 with January haven the highest increment.

Hon. Kennedy Agyapong was commenting on the energy crisis which had collapsed businesses but bills kept going up.

Voices from the majority side of the house shouted "liar, liar". The shout prompted the minority chief whip and MP for Okere, Hon. Daniel Botwe to draw the attention of the Speaker about the shouts from the majority side.

The Speaker, furiously descended heavily on the parliamentarians, citing that "I receive text messages from well meaning Ghanaians about the conduct of members of the House. Listen to Hon. Owusu Ankomah and Hon. Bagbin. Listen to them when they are on the floor", he stated.

He said the people of Ghana watch the proceedings of the House and that it would be prudent that members showed a good and befitting conducts.

Thursday's debate on the state of the nation address was the second day after the commencement of the debate on Wednesday.

Hon. Mahama Ayariga moved the motion during Wednesday's sitting that "this House thank His Excellency the President for the message of the state of the nation", he moved and it was seconded by MP for Adansi Asokwa, Hon. K.T. Hammond.

Members from both sides took turns to debate on the address. In moving the motion, MP for Bawku Central, Hon. Mahama Ayariga thanked the president for the level of development he has brought into the country with specific emphasis on the energy crisis and the evidence showed by the president to support his case.

Hon. K.T. Hammond who did not share the same view as Hon. Ayariga said the president performed a constitutional demand. "Mr. Speaker on this occasion we had the president who out of constitution demand came to the floor of this house to present the state of the nation to the people of the nation.

"In so doing the president was entitled to his own set of optical illusion. What the president is not entitled to particularly in the statement is evidence base, so called. Often times the president did not present to the people of Ghana the precise, the clear and the complete state and the comatose state of Ghana", he noted.

During his submission he referred to a newspaper when he wanted to comment on the president's fight against corruption. He said the president claim he is fight corruption but the newspaper had reported that Alfred Agbesi Woyome was asking for addition time to pay the money after a Supreme Court's ruling that he should pay. Mr. Speaker objected to Hon. K. T. Hammond's quote from the newspaper and said that members who would want to quote a court proceedings to a document must go for the proceedings from the court because there has been a ruling that not everything published in the newspaper is correct.

"If you want to quote what happened at the supreme court go and get proceedings from the court and quote it. Hon. Members for once let us be serious in this house. Ghanaians are watching us. The whole world is watching. I am not talking for the right or the left or where I sit. I am not going to take it from anybody. If you come to this house prepare before you speak if you don't prepare don't open your mouth", Speaker stated furiously as the house was quite like a cemetery.

Hon. Atta Akyea, MP for Abuakwa South commenting on the address on the part of corruption, described the president's fight against corruption which was captured in the address as "using table knife to uproot a mountain".