‘What’s good for the goose is good for the gander’ – Speaker justifies appointment of Asiedu Nketia

Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has taken a swipe at critics who did not want the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) appointed onto the Parliamentary Service Board (PSB).

According to him, the critics, some of whom were on the Advisory Committee of Parliament, resisted the appointment of Johnson Asiedu Nketia with the reason that it is an “undesired intrusion of political parties into the governance of Parliament”.

Announcing the new members of the Board, which included leaders of the two caucuses – Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and Haruna Iddrisu – as well as a former Member of Parliament (MP), Abraham Osei Aidoo, Speaker Bagbin said the critics claimed Mr Asiedu Nketia’s appointment did not bode well for the independence of Parliament because of his position.

But he announced that he has the powers to appoint the other four persons who together with the Clerks constitute the Board.

“It is also our considered opinion that Mr Speaker will do what is appropriate,” the former Nadowli Kaleo MP told the Eighth Parliament on Monday.

It was at this point that he traced the membership of the former Board as having a key member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) too.

“I want to note that the former Parliamentary Service Board had Honorable Hackman Owusu Agyeman as a member of the board and Hackman Owusu Agyeman later became the Chairman of the Council of Elders of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

“That one was not intrusion into the governance of Parliament by a political party. What is good for the gander is also good for the goose. Honorable members the board will be constituted and we will start our work,” he announced.