Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Alban S.K. Bagbin lost his cool in the chair on Wednesday, March 1 when some members grumbled their disagreement with him for defending Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s attendance record.
“Hon members are you challenging the Speaker? I’ve always told you monkeys play by size. So you can play with each other but not with the Speaker,” he declared.
The Minister was scheduled to respond to some parliamentary questions on Wednesday and sent in a letter to have the questions scheduled for another time.
The Speaker read the letter to the House and indicated the Minister is engaging representatives of the Chinese government over very pressing matters and could therefore not attend to the House.
Deputy Minority leader, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, accepted the explanation of the Speaker and agreed the House should make progress.
He, however, condemned the Finance Minister and said, “Mr. Speaker, as you know this House is not impressed with the record of the Minister of Finance’s attendance but we will allow that letter to stand.”
Speaker Bagbin jumped to the defense of the Minister and argued his attendance has improved since the House resumed sitting for this term.
The Finance Minister, he said, has attended to the House since Parliament resumed and sat from morning till night.
Some members of the Minority did not find this praise of the Ken Ofori-Atta comforting and began grumbling while some exclaim no no!
The Speaker was not enthused with this unwelcome interjection and stated, “Are you challenging the Speaker? I’ve always told you ‘monkeys play by sizes.’ So you can play with each other but not with the Speaker.
The Minister, he said, has improved on his record and has since been attending anytime he is invited.
He said, “In fact, he wrote to me explaining why he was absent and you have accepted that explanation. So let’s move on. For days now the Minister has been with us from morning till night.”
“And you know the pressure at the Ministry of Finance, particularly this time. So we should acknowledge that,” he added.