We Need Fair and Balanced Investigation of Parliamentary Scuffle

The decision by the Speaker of Ghana’s 9th Parliament, Mr. Alban SK Bagbin, to immediately suspend the four bipartisan Members of the august House involved in a barbaric fisticuff on the Parliamentary Appointments Committee, on Tuesday, January 30, 2025, must be unreservedly applauded (See “Speaker Suspends Four MPs Over Vetting Brouhaha” Modernghana.com 1/31/25). Not only does such uncouth and boorish behavior leave much to be desired, it also does not paint a civilized image about the leadership of the country to the International Community, especially at a time when Ghana is in dire need of foreign investment and the development of our economy and our tourism and our hospitality industry.

Still, this author was not in the least bit flabbergasted, in the wake of widespread post-election violence raging all over the country, ironically, by some members, supporters and sympathizers of the victorious and the presently ruling National Democratic Congress, a politically destabilizing event that both impugns the integrity and the credibility of the latter party’s electoral victory and the very success of the second nonconsecutive and final term of President John “Ahmed Bola Tinubu” Dramani Mahama of the Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana. Or is it “Ghangeria”?

It is for the foregoing reasons why the decision by Speaker Bagbin to have a member of his own party, the National Democratic Congress, investigate this most politically unflattering incident and report back to him and the House, as well, may clearly not be envisaged to be the most ideal and effective manner of arriving at a fair and an objective conclusion by the sole investigator of the aforesaid incident, namely, Mr. Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, the 57-year-old Member of Parliament for Ho-West Constituency, in the Volta Region. At the barest minimum level of credibility, Speaker Bagbin ought to have constituted an investigative panel or committee of two House Members, with the second co-member or co-chair coming from the significant main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), and then there could be assigned a third committee member who would serve as secretary to the committee, possibly a legally trained citizen from outside of Parliament, possibly one recommended by the Office of the Attorney-General and the Minister of Justice, or even a renowned and a distinguished and/or highly respected jurist.

As it presently stands, the credibility and the integrity of the One-Man or One-Person investigative committee is at best dodgy and at the worst untenably suspect. It is also significant to note here that shortly after the Parliamentary Appointments Committee, which is officially charged with the vetting of cabinet and other ministerial and executive appointees commenced its work or sitting, the New Patriotic Party’s Parliamentary Minority Leader, Mr. Alexander Afenyo-Markin, who also doubles as the Member of Parliament for Effutu Constituency, in the Central Region, bitterly complained about some arm-twisting and the characteristically intimidating tactics that were being used by the National Democratic Congress’ “Supermajority” as a means of having its way, by literally riding roughshod over any concerns raised by their New Patriotic Party “Mini-Minority” counterparts.

It is almost certain that the four suspended MPs were not the only House Members who had deported themselves crudely and boorishly, which is just another polite way of saying that it well appears that some scapegoats needed to be picked and “slaughtered” arbitrarily as a means of providing some sort of moral catharsis, as well as for Speaker Bagbin to feel the full heft of the position into which he has been struggling very strenuously and uncomfortably to fit his well-known volatile temper and red-jacket schoolboy’s “Samamo” demeanor. You see, age and temporal maturity have not significantly sedated this man with a humongous chip on his shoulders. And neither has his gray hair worn off the razor-blade edge of his sulfurous tantrums.

The selection of the scapegoats also seemed to have some edge or tinge of punitive equalization to it in a way that sharply verged on a General Mosquito-like comic relief to it, although I vehemently disagree with those morally and disciplinarily clueless House Members who rather puerilely claim Speaker Bagbin to be grossly out of order to crack the whip of civility in such an almost unimpeachable manner. Of particular and special mention is Mr. Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor, the National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for South-Dayi Constituency, in the Volta Region, a very notorious and cantankerous man who, not very long ago, made the banner news headlines for threatening Mr. Afenyo-Markin.

Yours truly did not get to read the details of the contents of the aforesaid news story, which was captioned, “We Are Not Brothers, We Will Show You Where Power Lies - NDC’s Dafeamekpor Fumes Over Recollation” (Ghanaweb.com/JoyOnline.com 12/22/24), but he also vividly recalls a couple, or so, years ago, when Mr. Dafeamekpor and some leading members of his party decided to establish a National Democratic Congress Members-Only National Bar Association, because these disgruntled self-absorbed and self-serving career politicians did not agree with the stance taken by the nation’s largest and oldest organization of professionally certified lawyers, the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), vis-a-vis the decision handed down by the then Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah-presided Supreme Court of Ghana, in the matter of the then Candidate John Dramani Mahama-led 2020 Presidential-Election Petition.

Leaked secretly recorded tapes would later reveal that the Star-Witness of the 2020 Mahama Presidential-Petition had not even equipped himself with the requisite minimum threshold of the pertinent forensically sustainable evidence, when “Lt-Col” Johnson “The Mosquito” Asiedu-Nketia, at the time, the General-Secretary of the then main opposition National Democratic Congress, mounted the dock to present his “Evidence in Chief.” And yet, the now-President Mahama had virulently impugned the credibility, integrity and the professional competence of Chief Justice Anin-Yeboah, to the extent of even calling for the prompt and the summary removal of his self-elected or self-proclaimed archnemesis.

Even more scandalous was the plaintiff’s insistence, against professional decency and common sense, that at least a couple of Supreme Bench Justices who had adjudicated his 2020 Presidential-Election Petition ought to have handed down their decision, rather scandalously and vacuously, in his favor, even without the plaintiff’s having presented any shred of forensically credible evidence before the Apex Court. That is the caliber of the President and the leadership of the National Democratic Congress presently holed up in Jubilee House, whose landslide 2024 Presidential-Election Victory, the irredeemably failed proprietor and presidential candidate of the so-called Movement for Change (M4C) ot the Butterfly Party comically described as “Gloriously Emphatic.”

Speaker Bagbin is also smack on target to be considering involving personnel from the Ghana Police Service (GPS) in the possible criminal prosecution of those four Members of Parliament who allegedly conducted themselves so civically irresponsibly - namely, Messrs. Frank Annoh-Dompreh (NPP, Nsawam-Adoagyiri); Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor (NDC, South-Dayi); Alhassan Tampuli (NPP, Gushegu); and Jerry Ahmed Shaib (NDC, Weija-Gbawe) - and ensuring the surcharging of these vandals and common criminals for the cost of damage done to taxpayer-underwritten furniture, as well as the cost of the medical expenses resulting from any injuries that might have been inflicted on any of their colleagues and staff members and officially invited guests of the august House. (By the way, as of this press preparation, there was a media report indicating the lifting of the suspension of the four Members of Parliament by Speaker Bagbin).

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
January 31, 2025
E-mail: [email protected]