Alban Bagbin
Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has stoked yet another controversy, by declaring that he is no longer the Number Three (3) most powerful person in the country but rather Number Two after the President.
The Speaker last weekend created the impression that he has the power to sack President Akufo-Addo from office after he said he can remove the President but the President did not have the power not remove him (Speaker) from office.
Number Two
He has now moved a step further by saying that a Supreme Court judge has told him he is the second most powerful, even ahead of the Vice President.
He made the statement at the post-budget workshop held at Ho in the Volta Region over the weekend for Members of Parliament following the reading of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government for 2022 financial year last Wednesday.
“When you start from His Excellency the President, you have to go to the Vice before you come to the Speaker and then you go to the Chief Justice. But there are three arms of government,” he said, attracting spontaneous laughter from the MPs.
“My colleagues in the Supreme Court actually told me that you are not Number 3, you are Number 2. All those who were present at that meeting were convinced when the Supreme Court judge made the submission and justified it.”
Mr. Bagbin said “it is not me saying it. I have said I am Number 3 and they said I am not, I am Number 2.”
Three Arms
He also said that “the three arms of government: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, are equal arms of government and must be treated as such.”
“I will insist and I expect to get the support of members, it is not this government. Right from 1993, parliament and the judiciary have never gotten 1% of the total revenue of the country, not even 1%! So I started the discussion from the highest, His Excellency the President and he was shocked when he saw the data, and my colleagues the Majority and Minority leaders are aware of this and we discussed how to transit from below 1% to about 5% within four years,” he said.
Number Three
In March, the same Speaker had teased Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu that he (Speaker) was Number 3 and the Minister of Parliamentary Business was nowhere to be found on the list of most powerful officers in the country.
The Speaker had referred a petition by former governor of Bank of Ghana, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, brought through NDC MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga over the collapse of UniBank to a committee of the House and the Majority Leader tried to challenge the process.
In the ensuing heat, the Speaker said “you don’t lead Parliament. You lead the business of the House. You lead the Majority and you lead government business. As to the role of Speaker you’ve not been there yet. When you get there you’ll do so.”
“You’ve been my good friend from all these years, until I became Speaker. Everybody in Ghana was doubting whether indeed you were really my friend. I’ve received a lot of calls about us and I said you’re my friend and you’re still my friend. Please don’t give credence to that,” the Speaker said.
The Speaker again said “you have to be my friend, not me being your friend. At least, I have a position in Ghana, Number 3. What is your number?”
Remove Akufo-Addo
At Ho on Saturday, the Speaker stoked debate when he criticised the executive arm of government in the way and manner he claims they don’t look out for the legislature, and said he can even remove the President and the President cannot remove him from office.
“Let me re-emphasise that the 8th Parliament is properly positioned not to allow itself to be bullied into playing second fiddle to the executive (spontaneous applauds from the MPs). 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 removed,” he said.
He said that “when I call on the government to look favourably to the two arms of government i.e. the legislature and the judiciary, we through our grace supports (sic) the legislature through the formulas, the Common Fund, the GETFund that we have been approving for the construction of their residences and court houses, and so we support their budget through those lines.”
“Look at your budgets, whether you do that for Parliament. Go back and look at the formulas. That is not done! To the extent that all these years, all the laws we have been passing benefitted the executive,” he claimed.
The Speaker said further that “even we forget about Parliament in the language we use. This is self-inflicted. It is not a deficiency in the constitution. It is a deficiency in Parliament itself and we must correct it,” adding “and so please, holding back on our budgetary requirements amounts to preventing Parliament and the judiciary from carrying out their mandate as provided for in the constitution.”
By Ernest Kofi Adu