He is supposed to be an independent umpire – Asiedu Nketia defends Alban Bagbin

Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, in his response to some accusations levelled against him by the National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress, Sammy Gyamfi, stated that his position requires him to be loyal to Ghanaians and the constitution and not the NDC that got him elected.

Bagbin noted that as Speaker, it is expected of him to be independent and show no form of bias to either side of the house.

“Recently in the media, on social media, in particular, you have heard the blistering attack on me when I did not play any role apart from presiding [over the business of the House].

“Because I say I belong or came from a party, does he [Sammy Gyamfi] think I’m at the beck and call of the party?” the former Nadowli-Kaleo MP told Class FM.

This stance by Bagbin has been endorsed by Asiedu Nketia who insists that Bagbin cannot do the bidding of the NDC in his current role.

Asiedu Nketia said in a Citi TV interview anyone with knowledge about the operations of parliament will not point accusing fingers at Bagbin.

When in the chair, you expect him to do NDC bidding so that when there is a vote and NDC loses, he will say NDC has won. He cannot do that. Once you are sitting there, you are supposed to be an independent umpire of debates. Outside the chair, he is NDC. He can attend NDC meetings. But when he is chairing debates, he cannot be NDC that is why the laws do not allow the person presiding to have a vote. So even where you are a Deputy Speaker belonging to one side of the house, once you are presiding, you cannot vote. You are supposed to be an independent umpire.

What Sammy Gyamfi said

In the aftermath of the approval of the first batch of ministerial nominees, Sammy Gyamfi accused Bagbin and the leadership of the NDC caucus in Parliament of placing their personal interest ahead of the party.

“Some have sold their conscience but ours is intact. And we can work together to rebuild the party from the ashes of 3 March 2021, which I call ‘Black Wednesday’ – our day of self-inflicted shame,” said on Facebook account.

“This is the time for us to insist on the right changes in the leadership of the NDC group in Parliament or forget about them completely. The current leadership have lost their moral authority to lead and are not fit to sit on the front bench of the NDC side of the House.

“More importantly, it’s about time we understood that we don’t have any NDC Speaker of Parliament. No, we don’t! We have a Speaker who rode on the back of the NDC into office to pursue his own parochial agenda and nothing more. You trust them at your own peril,” Gyamfi rallied the NDC supporters.