Prof. Mike Ocquaye, Incoming Speaker
The Minority in the seventh parliament under the Fourth Republic has called on the incoming Speaker, Prof. Mike Ocquaye to eschew partisanship in steering the affairs of the House.
Prof Ocquaye who served as the second Deputy Speaker of the House between 2009 and 2013 was Thursday elevated to the speakership position.
He takes over from Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho and will be deputized by Joe Osei-Wusu and Alban Bagbin as first and second deputy speakers respectively.
Speaking on Friday on Morning Starr, the incoming Minority leader, James Klutse Avedzi said they expect the incoming speaker to rise above partisanship in handling parliamentary proceedings which means being fair to both sides of the House.
“If he [Prof Ocquaye] wants to be too partisan, by concentrating on only one side of the House, it will not make the House lively, it will not make the business of the House flow as expected,” warned Mr. Avedzi.
He thus urged the former Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya to adopt an “open door” approach in his supervision of parliamentary busiess “so that we can have debate flow and the House can move as a family.”
Constructive Criticism
Mr. Avedzi said the Minority will subject the Nana Akufo-Addo administration to full scrutiny.
“We won’t just be in the house to oppose anything that is brought home for deliberations,” he told Bernard Nasara Saibu sit-in host of Morning Starr.
The Minority, he said will ensure that whatever the incoming government will bring to the House will undergo thorough analysis without fear or favour.
Former Minister of Power, Dr. Kwabena Donkor told Joy FM Thursday that the Minority will be a “loyal opposition and defend the interest of the State.”
The incoming Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu said they will strenuously scrutinize policies that will be promulgated by the Akufo-Addo administration to the “letter and spirit” of the pledges he made to Ghanaians during electioneering in 2016.
“But you can be certain…that we’ll hold the new administration to the letter and spirit of whatever they campaigned on,” he said Thursday.
