NDC Majority in 1st Parliament opposed bills by Rawlings’ govt – Bagbin touts

Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has noted that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was able to minimise extreme partisan politics in Ghana’s Parliament when the party had majority in the First Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

He revealed that the NDC Majority in Parliament at the time was able to reject bills and nominees presented to the House by the Jerry John Rawlings administration.

This situation, he said, smacked of true democracy that his party was able to bequeath to Ghanaians at the time before it lost the majority position after the 2000 elections.

The Member of Parliament for Nadowli-Kaleo Constituency said the same cannot be said today where majority is unable to criticize or reject questionable bills and appointees.

He cited the situation where he personally objected on the floor of Parliament the nomination of Dr Obed Asamaoh as Minister-designate for Foreign Affairs and at the same time of Justice and Attorney General.

He explained that he thought there were a lot of capable men and women in the NDC to occupy various positions that there was no need to give one person two ministerial portfolios.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) had also accused the NDC of lacking the men to govern the country and so he said he wanted to defuse that assertion.

“I opposed it on the floor of Parliament,” he told Berla Mundi in an interview on TV3‘s New Day Tuesday, October 13.

“It came on the back of accusation by the NPP that we did not have the men. Within a short time the nomination was changed.

“We were focused on the national interest.

“There were a lot of things that the then NDC government brought to Parliament that we rejected Including appointees, government nominees and even laws that we rejected.

“We disagreed with our own government. You don’t get that these days."