The minority caucus in parliament has asked the majority side to accord the Speaker all the needed respect in accordance with the 1992 Constitution.
According to the minority, the leadership of the majority is behaving as if the Speaker was a leader of the legislature by default.
“As leaders in the minority, we will not sit down for the New Patriotic Party majority to disrespect the authority of the third most-important personality in the country per the tenets of the 1992 Constitution”.
“We will preserve the sanctity of the position of Speaker of Parliament”, Deputy Minority chief whip Ahmed Ibrahim warned.
Mr Ibrahim was reacting to a warning issued by the Speaker to the Minister of Roads and Highways to reverse his decision to stop the payment of tolls even though the 2022 budget which made that proposal has not been passed by the house.
He noted that Mr Bagbin was equally elected as all other Speakers of Parliament of the Fourth Republic and, so, no group of individuals who will set out to show gross disrespect to his authority will be countenanced by the minority side.
Mr Ibrahim further noted that the minority will not sit down for the majority caucus to defy the aura of respect around the position of the Speaker.
“The position of Speaker is no mean feat in the scheme of the country’s constitutional dispensation,” he said.
He noted that Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin had no match as a Member of Parliament for the people of Nadowli Kaleo before becoming the Speaker.
“Mr Speaker has no co-equal as a Member of Parliament after serving the legislature from the outset of the fourth republican dispensation. Mr Speaker, as the longest-serving MP, presupposes that he knows his worth as well as the rules and regulations of the house”.
“Mr Speaker has seen it all as an MP and as a Speaker, so, there is no way we, as the minority, will sit aloof for his powers as Speaker to be disrespected by the majority,” he stressed.
The Speaker, he argued, “knows parliament inside-out as well as the rules of engagement for parliamentarians than any other current MP”.
“So, there is the need for all to accord him (Speaker) the respect he deserves,” Mr Ibrahim noted.
Source: classfmonline
