Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has responded to attacks on his personality by the Communications officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi after the house passed some contentious ministerial nominees of President Nana Akufo-Addo despite express directives from the Functional Executive Committee of the party, that those ministers-designate be rejected for various reasons.
Sammy Gyamfi in a post on Facebook indicated that the NDC leadership in Parliament “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”, he noted, “it’s about time we understood that we don’t have any NDC Speaker of Parliament”.
“No, we don’t!” he stressed, in reference to Mr Bagbin, complaining: “We have a Speaker who rode on the back of the NDC into office to pursue his own parochial agenda and nothing more”.
Reacting to these claims in an interview with Class Media, noted that he no longer belongs to any political party because his role as Speaker requires of him to balance the house.
He stated: “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?” he asked.
“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”, he explained his role.
“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”, he said.
GhanaFeed.com
