Parliament was, on Tuesday this week, thrown into a temporary state of ‘anarchy’ by the Speaker of the House, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, and the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who had engaged each other in a heated argument. The Speaker, who many believe is the close friend of Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, tried to point out to his friend that he was the third most important person in the country.
“At least, I have a position in Ghana, number three. What is your position in the country?”
The ‘power play’ comments came when the Leader of the Majority and head of Government Business, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, asked the Speaker to apply the rules in the House equally.
Speaker Bagbin had earlier directed Mr John Peter Amewu, Minister for Railway Development and Member of Parliament (MP) for Hohoe, who was in the House to present the annual budget of his Ministry for approval, to take his proper seat in the House for the sake of good records.
However, Mr Kyei- Mensah-Bonsu felt that the Speaker was sometimes biased towards the application of rules in the House and asked him to be consistent.
This didn’t sit down well with the Speaker, who also thought he had been fair ever since his appearance in the House as an MP and now the Speakership.
The Speaker, therefore, asked the Hansard Department, a wing of the House that keeps daily records of the proceedings, to expunge Mr Kyei- Mensah-Bonsu’s comments from the records and directed the Majority Leader to resume his seat.
He also indicated to Mr Kyei- Mensah-Bonsu that the manner in which he opposes his decisions in the House was making some Ghanaians doubt the friendship between them, and advised him not to give credence to the rumours.
“Please, you have been my very good friend for all these years until I became Speaker, and everybody in Ghana is doubting whether you were really my friend. I have received a lot of calls about that, and I keep telling them you are my friend. Please don’t give credence.
“But you are not the leader of the Speaker. You know the mode in which you disagree with me is what is giving credence to whether you are still my friend. It looks like you are my former friend now because I hear you always on air disagreeing with me, and so vehemently that people are asking if this is really my friend, so I am just drawing your attention. If you want to continue being my friend, then you know the proper thing to do.”
Though not explicitly stated, The Chronicle can report that the comments about Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu vehemently opposing the Speaker’s views in the House stems partly from an earlier altercations which ensued between the two regarding the a petition presented to the House by the owners of the defunct UT Bank and Unibank.
The petitioners, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the defunct UT Bank, and Dr Kwabena Duffuor, founder CEO of Unibank and former Finance Minister, who filed the motion through Mr Mahama Ayariga, MP for Bawku Central, want the House to direct the Central Bank to restore the licensees of the two defunct banks.
It would be recalled that the Bank of Ghana, on August 1, 2018, revoked the license of UniBank and four others for various banking irregularities, as part of the banking sector clean-up.
The license of UT Bank was revoked earlier in August 14, 2017, alongside Capital Bank, because they were “deeply insolvent, meaning that their liabilities exceeded their assets, putting them in a position not to be able to meet their obligations as and when they fell due,” the Bank of Ghana said in a statement.
These two collapsed banks and many others were put together to form the Consolidated Bank, with the deposits of their customers transferred to the new bank.
The duo want the Bank of Ghana to remedy the “harms done the shareholders’ property rights as a result of the conduct of the Bank of Ghana” and for Parliament to give any other directive it may deem appropriate. The Speaker indicated to the House: “If a citizen has a concern and thinks he should petition parliament, by our rules it must be done through a member of Parliament.”
He, therefore, allowed Mr Ayariga to present the petition and directed that leadership of the House constituted a seven-member committee to investigate the conduct of the Bank of Ghana in the revocation of licenses of UT Bank and Unibank.
However, the majority side of the House didn’t agree with the decision of the Speaker and tried every means to convince him not to admit the petition but didn’t succeed.
The majority’s argument has been that admitting the petition will open up parliament for all sort of petitions.
But the Speaker indicated he wasn’t oblivious of the fact majority side of the House, especially their leader opposes his decision but he thinks that was the way to go.
He also said parliament’s rules are quiet scanty on how to deal with petitions of such nature but assured the house the new rules which is being worked on will give clear and concise directives on how to deal with such petitions.
“I heard the majority leader speak on radio and I strongly and vehemently disagree with the position he held and I think that this the way we should go. The new standing orders will take care of some of these challenges.”
However, Mr Kye-Mensah Bonsu indicated that he still disagrees with the Speakers position on the issue regarding the petition. Stating his reasons, Mr Kyei-Mensah said the petition is an issue in court and discussing it in parliament is sub-judice.
“I must also register that I disagree with the position that you want to take because I believe that this is sub-judice.”
The back and forth lingered on for a while until the Speaker directed the House to proceed to take a different business. It was after this that Mr Kyei-Mensah again engaged in an arguments with the Speaker over the application of rules in the House equally.
The post How Bagbin, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu ‘punched’ each other in Parliament appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS