Alban Bagbin
The very image of Sammy Gyamfi questioning the integrity of Alban Bagbin on the basis of what happened when the nominated ministers were taken to the floor of Parliament for a decision to be made is shocking. What did Sammy expect Bagbin to do? To change the process as stated by the law so that the NDC could have their way?
Bagbin was not part of the committee so cannot be faulted for the report, he did not have the right to vote or whip others to do towards a certain direction, his was to guide the House and with more NDC members absent compared to the NPP, it was going to end one way even if the chances of some NDC members voting the other way round is considered.
Blaming Bagbin is not only silly, it is the height of ignorance of the law and Sammy is a lawyer.
Today, Sammy Gyamfi is telling us that he cares more about the NDC than Alban Bagbin, blatantly calling his very integrity into question and alleging that he was compromised in his discharge of duty during the election of the ministers. Wow.
I like Sammy Gyamfi a lot, I think that he is a brilliant young man, he is arguably the most eloquent political communicator in Ghana right now. This is the quality that has served him so well to the point of being the voice of Ghana’s second-largest political party.
Sadly, what he has in knowledge, he lacks in wisdom and that has been his problem from the very day he got the nation’s attention. Needless emotionally driven outbursts devoid of conventional wisdom has been his bane.
When knowledge of an issue is called, Sammy is your go to get guy, when it gets to the place where wisdom needs to lead, then he is found wanting.
This is why from day one, I always argued that he lacks the right qualities to be the head of the party’s communication bureau and that he is better-off deputising for a proper communications strategist who’d serve as a guide.
To target the third gentleman of the land over a decision that was solely MPs to make, with the Speaker only required to show the way with guidance from the Constitution of Ghana and the Standing Order of Parliament, I find it shocking that Sammy, despite being a lawyer refused to seek guidance from the law instead of making that lame accusation against the person of one of Ghana’s most distinguished politicians in the Fourth Republic.
With just a few years in the party, Sammy wants to tell the NDC that he cares more about the party than those who have held it together since 1992. The Speaker of Parliament has a duty that goes beyond the party, he is a statesman by the definition of his task. What Bagbin did was to be guided by the laws of Ghana and the Standing Orders of Parliament.
To expect him to be a puppet of the party even as a Speaker and ignore due process and standard parliamentary practice is silly. To come out this boldly and try to rally the support base of the NDC against him is even worse.
Can Sammy Gyamfi tell Ghanaians exactly what Bagbin did wrong and his basis for suggesting that he was compromised in the discharge of duty?
So in his estimation, Bagbin was elected Speaker to be remote-controlled from the NDC party headquarters by brains like him?
The cheek of it, such impudence.
He is just a little over thirty, he is a small boy, he will come good.
He is young
He is young
He is young
Before we know it, a foolish old man he has become.
At 30, excuses cannot make excuses for him by the use of age, he is supposed to know better.
The NDC need to tread cautiously in their expectations from this Parliament, the hope that it would be their tool for making the work of this government difficult is completely misplaced, any attempt to hold the nation to ransom would hurt the party even more because the people know it when politics gets ahead of patriotism.
Ghanaians received the election of Bagbin with great joy because in him, we saw a leadership that would be interested in doing the right thing with guidance from the law and not one placed there to do the bidding of a party.
Sammy should be called to order, his erratic behaviour can divide the NDC and make useless the gains made by the party in the just ended elections.
Unless of course, this is part of a grand scheme to make some people unpopular and save the ambition of another because to make so much importance of approval of the appointment of ministers and defying all odds to attack people the manner he did is strange, especially on the very day a seriously misleading electoral petition was put in its rightful place by the Supreme Court.
We are not talking about the case, we are not talking about how the very reason for going to court as stated in the reliefs made little logical sense, we are talking about how a Speaker of Parliament presided over approval of ministers without being partisan.
In politics, there is a reason for many things, something tells me this is part of a grand scheme. But hey! This is Sammy Gyamfi, the intelligent but unwise young man, it could as well be the normal him letting his weakness take the lead again.
By Isaac Kyei Andoh