NDC organizers praise Speaker Bagbin for saving Ghana’s democracy

A group of National Democratic Congress (NDC) Constituency organisers has praised the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, for saving the country’s democracy and also defended the Speaker’s decision to adjourn “sine die’ before the recall of parliament recently.

In interviews granted journalists, the group, led by the NDC’s Organizer for the Tema East constituency, Amarh Evans, alias Amarro, pointed out that the decision which has attracted all sorts of attacks is aimed at making sanity prevail in the eighth Parliament which was on the brink of chaos.

“First and foremost, it isn’t as if the Speaker gleefully adjourned the eighth parliament which he has so carefully tended and shepherded against expectation that it will be rowdy and full of logjams; he adjourned sitting indefinitely in attempt to ensure that the impasse around the four vacant seats which were declared was resolved,” Amarh Evans said.

This being the case, he asks how anybody could construe Bagbin’s actions as nation-wrecking.

“I ask all those who are criticizing the Speaker what they would have done differently if they were the Speaker and they were facing a situation where one side of the house had decided to walk-out because they had lost seats and become minority.”

According to the Tema East NDC Organizer who was speaking in the company of other Organizers from the Greater Accra region, if the Speaker had not adjourned Parliament, the NPP and the NDC would have either taken turns to abandon parliament or even worst, engaged in unsavory actions that would have brought disgrace to Ghana, given the already underlying tensions in Parliament.

“Bagbin’s mature decision to adjourn parliament was so that the leadership can quietly resolve the differences,” Amarh Evans added.

Meanwhile, the NDC Organizers said that people who deserve to be blamed for the Parliamentary impasse are the NPP MPs who decided to stage a walk-out after the Speaker declared the four seats vacant.

“I wonder how anybody who is interested in the well-being of our governance system would fail to see that we are here because the NPP MPs decided to be sour losers in Parliament after the sitting MPs whose seats were declared vacant, had announced they were basically crossing carpet.

"Parliament’s rules of engagement are clear about suchlike behaviour and so why it is that nobody is blaming the NPP but the Speaker, who is just the umpire?” the organizers said.

They also pointed out that Bagbin, by his action, which was partly in response to the intrusive ruling by the Supreme Court to overturn his declaration, was discharging an important responsibility to protect Parliament from overreach by the Judiciary.

“We cannot have a democracy where the principle of the Separation of Powers is thrown to the dogs; Speaker Bagbin defended our democracy from going down that path and for that he should be commended.”

The Organizers also commended the Speaker for holding a press conference to explain his actions to the nation, revealing that the leadership of parliament has been quietly trying to resolve the impasse.

Mr. Isaac Paddy, the Adenta Constituency Organizer on his part said “look at how the brilliant and hardworking Speaker Bagbin thoroughly explained the issues backed by the 1992 Constitution to the admiration of Ghanaians during his encounter with the press in parliament on Wednesday.

"Look at how he exposed State actors who don’t abide by the rule of law to scare investors, Speaker Bagbin is saving our democracy and he is the best so far”.