Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, has denied reports that he asserted his superiority to the President.
He asserted that he never uttered the statements that have been ascribed to him in various circles.
He further clarified what he stated during a meeting with the management of Media General in Accra since, in his opinion, it had been misinterpreted. He clarified that impeaching a President only needs the support of two-thirds of parliamentarians, as opposed to impeaching a speaker of parliament, which needs the support of three-quarters.
The Speaker of Parliament claimed that when the mood in Parliament becomes tense, he may occasionally opt to tell a joke to lighten the mood. When everyone laughs, the tension is then relieved. He said that in a hung parliament, where no one is on his side, there are specific scales that should be employed in particular.
“The NDC my party, expects me to lean in favour of them but I don’t do so, so they are angry with me. The NPP see me as an opponent and they think that I am always opposing them. Sometimes, I give things in their favour and they are happy, the next day I give against them they tell me that they are in government but I tell them to go and read the definition of government in the Constitution.
“Government is the president in our constitution. The body in which it resides is executive authority and the executive authority is exercised only by the president. He can delegate it to his ministers but it resides with him. So the government in Ghana is the president, I am not part of that. The President is not higher than me, we are equal partners. It is only protocol that you have to mention God the Father before you go to God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.”
Alban Bagbin
He concluded on his analysis that this does not imply that God the Father is superior to God the Holy Spirit, and as a result, the idea is that it is simpler to impeach a President with the support of two-thirds of parliamentarians than to impeach a speaker with the support of three-quarters. He then enquired as to which was harder.
“I have said it a number of times and people say that I am more powerful than the President. no! I have never said that,” he emphasized.
Daily Trial Of Gyakye Quayson Wrong
The High Court’s decision to hear the case of James Gyakye Quayson, the Member of Parliament-elect for Assin North, every day has been criticized by Alban Bagbin.
Bagbin called the choice “selective,” pointing out that it is wrong to put Gyakye Quayson through a daily trial while not subjecting others to the same ordeal.
Moreover, he stressed the significance of maintaining the rule of law and claimed that the present strategy appears to be “rule by law” rather than “rule of law.”
“What we are doing is rule by law, not rule of law, and I think that we should move away from that. For democracy to succeed, the pillar is the rule of law. I tell them, and I tell the judges, it is not right. If it is done to everybody, I have no problem but if it is done selectively, I have a problem.
“The law is not the centre of democracy, that is one of the errors in our [1992] constitution, read through our constitution and you’ll see the law is a respecter of so many people. So many people in Ghana are above the law. You can’t have democracy [with that] and so we need to work at it seriously and this [is why] the constitutional review is something we must take up.”
