Frank Annoh-Dompreh
Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, yesterday took a swipe at the NDC Minority in Parliament for their pro-coup rhetoric on the floor of the House after the abortive coup in Guinea-Bissau.
Some of the opposition lawmakers, while condemning recent coups in the West Africa sub-region, justified the coups and blamed such military interventions on governments who are “feeding fat at the expense of the poor, engaging in cronyism and nepotism and bad leadership.”
The NDC MPs used such accusations amplified by Mahama Ayariga (Bawku Central), Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah (Ellembele) and Murtala Mohammed (Tamale North) —to taunt and pursue a purge of the NPP government.
But, the NPP MP for Nsawam-Adoagyiri noted that events in Parliament show the NDC to be hypocritical when it comes to coups.
“But I dare say we need not to glorify coup d’états. I hear people say that if the calls of the masses are not adhered to, poverty, which is an issue, if not tracked then you are preparing the grounds for coup d’état, no. It can never be the case.
“As long as a continent, we have agreed to go by the tenets of democracy, we should be ready and prepared to subject ourselves to it,” he submitted during a contribution to a statement made by the NDC MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.
Mr. Annoh-Dompreh continued, “I recall when the Ghanaian people were crying for Free SHS the NPP did not resort to a coup d’état. We waited and bade our time and got you out through the ballot box. That should be the narrative.
“Anybody who believes that he has a better alternative should be patient and wait for the appropriate time. Mr. Speaker, we are all professing various solutions for the continent but we must also look within. It cannot be justified under any circumstance that Members of Parliament (MPs) will reduce intellectual arguments to fisticuffs,” he asserted.
“We have people who are targeting the seat of the Speaker; it cannot be the case. And if we continuously engage in that, then we are preparing the grounds for the unfortunate. It is high time we also reflected,” he urged.
He stated that the attack on the Speaker is a form of coup d’état, and that the MPs who engage in fisticuffs in Parliament are also fueling and facilitating coup d’état which must be condemned in no certain terms.
The Majority Chief Whip said he had never witnessed MPs going after the Speaker’s seat, while growing up as a young student leader, saying, “I have never seen that.”
“Both sides [of the House], we need to reflect. The ruling class must reflect and we are part of the ruling class. You cannot at one time or one hand condemn the coup d’état, and at another hand surreptitiously and physically try to attack the Speaker of Parliament.
“For me, that is a form of coup d’état. Anybody who engages in fisticuffs in Parliament here is fueling and facilitating coup d’état and must be condemned in no uncertain terms,” he posited.
Democracy Better
The Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, who was in the chair, called for tolerance among Ghanaians, intimating, “No matter what the situation, we are better off in a democracy than coup d’état, no matter what. So please let us be tolerant.”
“If a government is not, per your standard, doing well, please be tolerant and the time will come for you to change the government,” he said and added that “this coup thing is not the best. So let us be tolerant.”
NPP MP for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea said considering what is happening in West Africa, coups should not be glorified.
“I am of the humble view that the sanctions that ECOWAS is pushing so hard should bite; it should have force,” he stated and called for more disincentives for coup plotters.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House