Joseph Osei-Owusu
FIRST DEPUTY Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, aka Joe Wise, has fired back at criticism by Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin aimed at impugning his character as non-conformist and defiance of authority, describing the Speaker’s behaviour as intolerant.
“Indeed, Mr. Speaker’s last description of my ruling as illegal, unconstitutional and offensive is most unfortunate and epitome of intolerance of differing views,” he stressed.
Bagbin’s Statement
Speaker Bagbin said on February 23 this year that it is “unconstitutional, illegal and offensive” for the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu to overturn his rulings in the House.
According to him, although the Standing Orders of Parliament are silent on this, “many Standing Orders and Rules on several sister parliaments provide persuasive rules, which suggest that when Deputy Speakers or other Speakers are in the chair, whatever happens in the House is that officer’s responsibility, and the Speaker cannot be called upon to overrule it.”
This was after the first Deputy Speaker upheld an objection to a motion by some Minority members for Parliament to constitute a bipartisan parliamentary committee to be chaired by a member of the Minority Caucus to enquire into the expenditures made by Ghana Government in relation to COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.
However, Mr. Osei-Owusu believes Speaker Bagbin has been misjudging his conduct in the House and electing to disrespect his right to hold a different view other than his (Bagbin), saying that the Speaker’s “formal communication” to the House on February 23, 2022 was “most unfair and totally un-reflective of my conduct as the First Deputy Speaker in the 7th and 8th Parliament.”
In a statement released to the media at the weekend, the First Deputy Speaker said Mr. Bagbin, since becoming the Speaker, appears to think that holding a different view from himself, is “unbecoming and insubordinate of a Deputy Speaker” is alien to the culture of the House.
“Mr. Speaker and I have worked in different capacities since the 6th Parliament. In the 6th Parliament, while he was the Chairman of the Constitutional and Legal Committee, I was the Ranking Member of the same committee.”
“We worked closely together on a number of bills and we had different views on a number of issues during our work. We each strongly argued our positions and when we could not reconcile our different positions, we agreed to disagree, but we each respected the other’s right to his view,” Mr. Osei-Owusu stated.
He continued, “In the 7th Parliament, we were the two Deputy Speakers to the then Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon Mike Ocquaye. On and out the floor of Parliament, we held different views on a number of issues. Holding a different view on issues from Mr. Speaker therefore is not new to him.”
Intolerance
The First Deputy Speaker indicated that Mr. Bagbin had become intolerant of opinions different from his own.
“I would like to place on record that the Speaker, a Deputy Speaker or a Member presiding, exercises the same powers and applies the same Standing Orders and Constitutional provisions to manage the House, whilst on the Chair. It is not the case of the President and his Vice, as Mr. Speaker suggests,” Mr. Osei-Owusu posited.
“To say that my ruling is offensive, illegal or unconstitutional because he would have ruled differently is, in my view, a rather dangerous approach to democracy,” he fired.
The First Deputy Speaker, who is out of the jurisdiction – leading Ghana’s delegation to the Pan-African Parliament Meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said he had never entertained any application for a review of a ruling of the Speaker and would never do so.
“As many times as I have the opportunity to preside, I will apply the Standing Orders and relevant constitutional provisions as I understand them and if need be, be guided by precedent.”
By Ernest Kofi Adu