The Speaker of Parliament, Honorable Alban Bagbin has intimated his core mandate and mission in Parliament, to neither be what he described as a Rubber stamp nor an obstructionist.
He noted that, regardless of which party has the upper hand in the House, it would be wrong to see Parliament’s role as either obstructing or rubberstamping Government’s agenda.
Addressing the house during the second sitting in a speech, he averred that, concerns were needless, as it is based on an incorrect view of what this Parliament’s role is and indeed what its role has been in the Fourth Republic.
“Parliament cannot discharge any one of its core mandates-deliberative, legislative, financial control, oversight, and representational, by being either obstructionist or a rubberstamp. As the foremost accountability institution in our constitutional system, Parliament’s role is to check-and-balance the Executive, not to obstruct or rubberstamp the Executive’s agenda.”
He described Parliament as one that does its job, as it must, questions, investigates, reviews, and scrutinizes the Executive, its bills, its nominations, and its proposed agreements, and then proceeds to approve, to amend, or to reject them, as the case may be.
He explained that, his reason for the statement is as a result of what appears to be some amount of confusion and misunderstanding as to what the appropriate role of Parliament is in the constitutional system adding that, much of this, is as a result of the two-party structure and composition of the House, within the context of our winner-takes-all politics.
Honorable Alban Bagbin, lamented that, due to this, whenever Parliament is dominated by the same party that holds the Presidency and forms the Government, the common perception and expectation is that Parliament will automatically support the Government’s agenda, without regard to its merits.
“In short, we have come to assume that Government is entitled to have its way in Parliament. And because this has been the Ghanaian public’s perception of how Parliament has conducted itself under various Administrations in the Fourth Republic, this current development of a House in which neither Party has a secure or dominating Majority, in other words, no Majority Party and no Minority Party, and of a Speaker who is not beholden to or endorsed by the President, is causing many of our citizens both in and out of Government, including in this House, a great deal of consternation.
“To them, if Government is not guaranteed its way in a Parliament, then such a Parliament can only be obstructionist.”
Speaking on the expectation of Parliament by Ghanaians, the Speaker stated that, Ghanaians in voting as they did in the last elections, signalled their frustration with and disapproval of the “Party First” mindset and the associated unbridled partisanship and partisan polarization that have taken root in Ghana’s politics.
He indicated also that, the People of Ghana would want Parliament to prioritize their needs and concerns above their own private or parochial interest or the narrow interest of one or the other political party.
He further posited that, Ghanaians were demanding of the Parliamentarians, a sound and effective solutions to their everyday problems, needs, frustrations, anxieties, and fears.
