On Collision Course With Ghana’s Destiny

Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin

This man called Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin and who prides himself as Number Three by virtue of his position as Speaker is on a collision course with the country’s destiny.

For the interest of his political party, Speaker Bagbin does not care whether the country burns or not. To what end does he want the present stalemate in Parliament to serve?

He is the only person who can explain. With less than 30 days to another general election, Speaker Bagbin wants to redefine the supremacy of the political parties in Parliament, because he has taken his referee status in the House to serve the parochial partisan interest.

At his presser last Wednesday, he tried to paint the picture of normalcy in Parliament, insisting that there is no constitutional crisis, when a faction which is the Minority in Parliament has decided to occupy the Majority side, a clear sign of chaos and confusion. The intervention of the respected statesman, former President John Agyekum Kufuor, for calm and sanity will not compel Speaker Bagbin to blink.

And quite sadly, our Speaker enjoys the drama of shutting down Parliament House for the second time and to put the keys in his pocket while government business suffers.

This is so because the whole country has to contend with a character who carries the Speaker position as a badge of honour as if he is the first ever to be appointed to such a position.

The man who expects Ghanaians to respect laws passed by Parliament does not respect the rule of law. In effect, he is telling us all to disregard court orders, citing the independence of the legislative arm of government as the reason for his actions. As a lawyer, he must be very conversant with the constitutional provisions that make our Judiciary the final arbiter in disputes in the country and again, the Judiciary is the only arm of government charged with the power to check the arbitrariness and discretionary powers of the Executive and Legislature.

We have no doubt in our minds that Speaker Bagbin knows that the Supreme Court is the final appellate body of the whole court system in the country. Also, the Supreme Court has the original and exclusive jurisdiction in all matters relating to the enforcement or interpretation of the Constitution and all matters arising as to whether an enactment was made in excess of the powers conferred on Parliament or any other authority or person by law or under the Constitution.

We know and understand it to be true that Speaker Bagbin also knows that the sovereignty of Ghana resides in the people of Ghana in whose name and for whose welfare the powers of government are exercised in a manner and within the limits laid down in the Constitution.

We are outraged by the actions of Speaker Bagbin to create tension in the country and make the country ungovernable.

If the Supreme Court has exclusive original jurisdiction in all matters relating to the enforcement or interpretation of the 1992 Constitution, why is he challenging the order of the Supreme Court to Parliament to allow the four MPs the chance to participate in the business of the House until the final determination of the case?

Where is Speaker Bagbin deriving his powers from, and if it is from the Constitution, who has power in Ghana to determine whether the Constitution has been breached or not?

We think Speaker Bagbin is out to cause mischief and as a leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to use or misuse his position to aid NDC politics and by extension the electoral fortunes of John Mahama.

It is against this backdrop that we once again call on sane voices to rise up and call Speaker Bagbin to order. Indeed, Speaker Bagbin assumed his position in the dawn of January 7, 2021, out of a very chaotic situation, and since then he has presided the lawless acts of some NDC MPs who want to use the hung Parliament to cause mischief.