Richard Gyakye Quayson, NDC Member of Parliament for Assin North constituency
The elected NDC Member of Parliament for Assin North constituency in the Central region, Mr Richard Gyakye Quayson, had better take note of the following two case references.
In 1973 at then Kumawu Tweneboa Kodua Secondary School, an incident happened. It was all about one Mr Bimpong, a Chemistry subject teacher or master and one student called Asmah, a Lebanese or Syrian of origin but then seen by the entire school population as the only whiteman in the school hence many students kowtowed to him for his whiteness of skin colour.
Asmah might have misconducted himself in class. Therefore, at lunchtime on that fateful day, Mr Bimpong came to the dining hall, mounted the rostrum and announced that if Asmah was present, he should stand up, walk out of the dining hall and meet him outside.
Asmah was by then seated at his assigned to table of eleven students, about to enjoy his lunch. His table mates incited him to insult the master for disgracing him in the dining hall.
At the school, students were seated by eleven per table in the dining hall.
Asmah stood up and shouted insults at Mr Bimpong in front of the entire student population in the dining hall.
In less than no time, he was summoned by the School Headmaster to his office. The Headmaster was Mr Bang, a very disciplined and strict person who tolerated no acts of indiscipline from any student.
The next day at lunchtime, the Assistant School Senior Prefect nicknamed Audacious, mounted the platform and announced the dismissal of Asmah from the school.
In his dismissal address, he warned that should any student see Asmah off past the school park, that person also must consider him or herself dismissed from the school.
Asmah of all people, had to personally carry his trunk from the school to Kumawu town to get a passenger bus back to Kumasi. No student saw him off past the school park as instructed. In the middle of the park, his friends waved him goodbye and asked him to get in touch. However, it was these same guys or friends who instigated him to insult the master.He suffered the punishment all alone.
The Senior School Prefect in the school at the time was one Gyasi, now a Doctorate degree holder in the USA for the past several decades.
The other case is about the late Member of Parliament for Bawku Central in the Upper East region called Mr Adamu Daramani Sakande. He won the seat on the ticket of NPP in the 2008 general elections.
He was accused of having dual nationality, British and Ghanaian. To become an MP, the constitution bars one from holding dual or multiple nationalities other than one and of course, Ghanaian's.
Mr Sakanda was convicted and imprisoned only to be later pardoned by President John Dramani Mahama in 2012 on health grounds. He had been taken seriously ill. He went to London to seek medical assistance but died in September 2020.
From these two cases, those NDC MPs who encouraged Quayson to go to parliament to be sworn in as MP and cast a vote during the election of the Speaker of Parliament on 6 January 2021 will not share any punishment he may suffer later, same as it was in the story of Asmah.
Knowing that he was under injunction granted by the Cape Coast High Court not to be sworn in as MP-elect or conduct himself as an elected MP until his circumstances had been examined and his fate determined by the court, he still went ahead to do the contrary.
Again, the precedent as suffered by Adamu Daramani Sakande is not looking too good for him since he too held dual citizenship, Canadian and Ghanaian, at the time of filing his nomination papers at the Electoral Commission to contest for the parliamentary seat on the ticket of the NDC.
If the law is to take its course as specified in the two cases above, then your guess is as good as mine.
