Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin in a naked display of power has threatened to remove President Akufo-Addo from power, if he wants but the president can’t do same to him.
Bagbin in apparent show of influence in the governance architecture of the country, boasted about the office of speaker saying he can initiate the removal of the president from office, but the president is not clothed with such power to cause the removal of the speaker.
According to him the law gives Parliament the power to remove a president but does not give the same powers to a president to be able to remove a Speaker of Parliament.
He said this at the post-budget forum in Ho in the Volta Region over the weekend. “Let me reemphasize that the 8th Parliament is properly positioned not to allow itself to be bullied into playing second fiddle to the executive”.
He continues “Parliament can remove His Excellency the President; His Excellency cannot do that to Parliament. As Speaker, His Excellency cannot remove me, but I can through Parliament get him [the president] removed”.
He used the moment to explain that Parliament approves budgets that benefit the executive more than the legislature and the judiciary, who are the arms of government.
This, he said was their own making and asked that steps be taken to fix the situation.
“This year, all the laws we have been passing are laws we passed to benefit the executive, even we forget about Parliament in the language we use, this is self-inflicted; it is not a deficiency in the constitution, it’s a deficiency in Parliament itself. We must correct it”, he said.
He however added that though he has such powers, he will not do it.
BY Daniel Bampoe