8th Parliament toothlessly rubber-stamping executive decisions – Prof Gyampo

Senior Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo has described the current parliament as a toothless House that is rubber-stamping executive decisions more than any parliament in Ghana’s history.

According to Gyampo, the only thing the Minority does is to bark to hypnotize the public into thinking it is asserting its parliamentary role whiles it actually ends up singing praises of the ruling government even louder than members of the government.

“It appears the kind of Parliament we have now may even be more toothless in rubber-stamping executive decisions than the previous ones. The minority group would only bark and hypnotize us into thinking they would assert the role of parliament as countervailing authority.

“But they would sing the praises of the ruling government even louder than members of the government, when they are required to assert parliamentary sovereignty,” Prof Gyampo stated in a social media post sighted by GhanaWeb.

In Prof Gyampo’s view, the evidence of what he says is the Minority’s contradictory conduct is evident in their work at the Appointments Committee and the Plenary Session of the House.

The 8th Parliament of Ghana owing to its composition was anticipated to be critical of executive decisions as the NPP and NDC caucuses came out of the 2020 elections with the same number of seats – 137 apiece.

The New Patriotic Party currently has a narrow advantage over the main opposition National Democratic Congress with the support of the only independent member in the house.

However, it was still expected that the Minority will prove tough for the majority and sometimes clinch victory in certain decisions as was witnessed in the election of a Speaker for the house.

However recent developments principaly the approval of some ministerial nominees of the President have had many casting doubts over the minority’s ability to hold the executive to account.