Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has urged members of Parliament to find a middle path to serve their constituents because Ghanaians have demonstrated they prefer power sharing.
According to him, judging from the outcome of the 2020 elections, Ghanaians are looking for a government where the different opposing political parties will come together to participate in the government.
Civil society organizations, he said, were excited at the result of the elections they believed Ghanaians have put together a legislator of equal strength to work solely in their interest and build the Ghana they want.
The Speaker lamented, however, that the high expectation Ghanaians put in the legislator is waning because of the noise and fury that has dominated business in the House.
Speaking last Friday after complaints by members that some media houses got their reportage on events of the previous day wrong, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin insisted journalists cannot be blamed for their errors because even many members got their arguments wrong during debate on the floor of the House.
The House on Thursday, February 23 debated a report of a briefing session on the draft public elections (registration of voters) regulations, 2022 and a report of the Special Budget Committee on the 2023 budget estimates of the Electoral Commission (EC).
The House subsequently adopted the reports but some media houses reported Parliament adopted the public elections regulations, the proposed controversial Constitutional Instrument (CI) of the EC seeking to make Ghana card the only source document of citizenship for purposes of registering for the 2024 election.
This came on the back of a meeting of the Committee of the Whole for the EC to brief the House on the new CI, which was eventually suspended after a confrontation broke out among the members due to the absence of the Chairperson of the Commission.
Speaker Alban Bagbin warned MPs to tread cautiously because Parliament is very fragile and to be very careful how they conduct business in the House.
He said, “….When you were talking about the fact that the media got it wrong; they got it wrong because a number of you, during the debate on the adoption of the reports, also got it wrong. So how do you blame the media for getting it wrong?”
He stated there has been resistance to the idea of power-sharing because politicians are used to the majoritarian system but stressed the last election has demonstrated Ghanaians are looking for power-sharing, which is why the numbers in Parliament are so close.
The Speaker extolled the quality of MPs of the 8th Parliament and described the present composition as one the best if not the best since Ghana reverted to constitutional rule.
He said, “Your quality is very high and you are very articulate and well-informed. The only thing is how to calm your nerves.”
According to him, the closest that Parliament has come to the present composition was between 2001 and 2004, which was eventually disrupted by by-elections that the sitting government won.
He reminded MPs that Parliament is the only hope to sustain Ghana’s democracy and should therefore not be allowed to collapse.
Africa, he said, is also looking up to Ghana and therefore cannot afford to fail them.
Mr. Alban Bagbin disclosed he has been getting a lot of calls from Ghanaians expressing concerns about the conduct of members in the Chamber and charged leadership to organize a training workshop for their members to go through rules, particularly the etiquette of the House.
