Former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansah-Asare, has criticised the leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, for what he describes as 'attacks' on the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin.
Ansah-Asare, reacting to Afenyo-Markin's remarks after Speaker Bagbin adjourned the Parliament meeting on November 7, 2024, said that the language used by the leader of the NPP caucus of Parliament was inappropriate and unbecoming of a parliamentarian.
“Honourable Afenyo-Markin attacking the Speaker was unparliamentary, very uncultured. And this is the first time that I'm seeing live, an MP attack the Speaker of Parliament using unparliamentary language, using invectives, using assaulting, you know, the Speaker's character and playing to the gallery. It's unwarranted, it's uncalled for.
“And I'm glad that the Honourable Afenyo-Markin himself recognised the need for decency. The Majority Leader ought not to launch an assault on the Speaker of Parliament merely because they disagree with the Speaker. When he was addressing the media, the whole world was watching. This is not the way a leader, the Majority Leader, should address the Right Honourable Speaker,” he said in an interview on TV3 on November 7, 2024.
The legal expert and statesman emphasised that Afenyo-Markin should apologise not only to the Speaker of Parliament but to the entire nation for his remarks.
“I think that the Majority Leader or Minority Leader should apologise to the whole nation, not even to the Speaker, to the nation. Because what he has done will forever remain a scar on the conscience of the nation. It's the first time, the first time that I'm seeing such unruly behaviour on the part of a Majority Leader."
Afenyo-Markin criticised the Speaker of Parliament for his handling of the controversy surrounding the declaration of four seats in the House as vacant.
Speaking to the media at Parliament after the Speaker adjourned the meeting indefinitely for the second time in less than a month, Afenyo-Markin accused the Speaker of threatening the country’s democracy with his actions.
He accused the Speaker of overseeing chaos in the Parliament of Ghana, which he said his side would not tolerate.
The leader of the NPP caucus also criticised the Speaker for remarks he made at his press briefing on Wednesday, November 10, 2024.
“The Speaker is setting the country on fire. Yesterday we were disappointed with his reconciliatory posture during his press conference,” he said.
He accused Speaker Bagbin of betraying an agreement made prior to the sitting, for him to tell the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs that they are the Minority Caucus and instruct them to sit on the minority side of the House.
He claimed that the Speaker had assured certain stakeholders, including the Peace Council of Ghana, that his earlier declaration of four seats in Parliament as vacant no longer stood after the Supreme Court's order; stating that the NPP MPs chose not to appear in the House because they did not want to participate in what they perceived as lawlessness.
BAI/MA
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