The Rt Hon. Alban S.K. Bagbin has stated his focus as Speaker of the 8th Parliament is to further push the progress Ghana has made in her governance system and entrench her democracy.
According to him, he is not focused on leaving a legacy because he is not interested in self-aggrandizement but rather in how Ghana can consolidate its democracy.
He indicated the country should have consolidated its democracy by now and stated,” Because the benchmark is that after three successful and peaceful transitions, you are said to have consolidated democracy.”
“But the truth and the reality in Ghana is that we haven’t yet consolidated democracy, where the government itself can disobey laws with great impunity.”
“That is not consolidation of democracy. We should right now be moving towards entrenching democracy to become a culture.”
“So you don’t need any law to guide you; it will be part of your behaviour. You don’t need a police officer at a traffic light before obeying traffic signals. It becomes part and parcel of you.”
“So my focus is how to build this arm of government because you can trace all these to this arm of government, which represents the people.”
The Speaker disclosed these at an engagement with members of the Parliament Press Corps (PPC) on Friday, October, 28.
The meeting, similar to the ‘meet the press series for ministers’ was an open forum for the media to ask the Speaker pertinent questions and also express their concerns about their work in the House.
It was the first of its kind where a sitting Ghanaian Speaker of Parliament has opened up to the media.
He averred that at the end of his duty, he will expect his product to speak for itself but stressed his interest is not in legacy.
“I have done a lot and I’m sure that the Parliamentary Service Staff will communicate what I’ve done within these two years. Next year, the focus will be on productivity and production,” he said.
The Speaker indicated he also holds regular staff durbars to brief the Parliamentary staff on the status of promises he has made and also give them the opportunity to ask questions.
He argued it is the human resource that makes up an institution and stressed it is not the laws, the money or the logistics.
“If we are able to get our human resource well-inspired, motivated and facilitated even heaven is not the end. You can go beyond that,” he added.
These and many more, he said, are what he is doing to make the legislature more effective and not just focused on leaving a legacy.
