Former Head of History and Political Science at KNUST, Dr. Samuel Adu Gyamfi, has advised that the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress(NDC), Aseidu Nketiah, should retract and render an apology over his “slap” comment.
According to him, politicians need to respect the kind of comments that they utter and also the specific objective they hope those comments will fulfill.
“I would want to suggest or advise that Mr. Aseidu should retract his statement and better still apologize to the people of this country.”
Dr. Adu Gyamfi
Dr. Adu Gyamfi advised that there should be some form of rapport between the majority and minority whether they agree or not on issues that pertain to the development of the nation.
“We must not use brawls, we must always use brains and it will require diplomacy, it will require tactfulness and it will require the need for us to understand that we have no other country than what we have now.”
Dr. Adu Gyamfi
According to Dr. Adu Gyamfi, any comment that feels to wrongly suggest to Parliament not to use decent approach but rather to descend into a degree of lack of tactfulness, diplomacy and the use of brawl seems to negate Parliament from its democratic credential and parliamentary practices.
“It’s important to also state that even though in recent times we’ve had a house that has degenerated into something else, the house and its laws will not support any such acts that will push for social dissonance and conflicts that will engineer recesses that will halt the proceedings of the house.”
Dr. Adu Gyamfi
Dr. Gyamfi’s comments follow Aseidu Nketiah’s comment that the Minority MPs should resort to violence in the event the Majority side decides to “bend the rules” to get the controversial E-levy passed.
According to him, if a Deputy Speaker decides to vote during proceedings and at the same time play the role of a referee, the members of the minority shouldn’t hesitate to slap him to keep him on track.
Disassociation from comment
Dr. Adu Gyamfi suggested that Parliament both the majority and minority should come out and dissociate themselves from the comment which came from Mr. Aseidu Nketiah.
“It is important to say that we use words to build nations and we can use words to destroy it. In diplomacy, it is always important that language or political communication is very critical. In as much as we can use it to increase conflict, from time to time, men have used miscommunication to also cause situations to degenerate. It is important for us to agree [one issues] as a civil society and as a state that seeks to build itself within a certain democratic arrangement.”
Dr. Adu Gyamfi
The former Political Science Head averred that if Parliament that has most of the executives will not agree to disagree but will rather be interested in throwing punches, “then where are we going as a state?”
Touching on the way forward, Dr. Adu Gyamfi intimated that as a house that makes laws and serves as a check on the executives, they must be able to respect their own rules and respect the constitution of the country and for that matter ensure that the rules are applied.
“Parliament has its own rules and I believe that their rules will not supersede or have the ultimate authority beyond the constitution of this country. As a matter of fact, the President of this country is subject to the dictates of the law in this country especially the parent law which is the constitution.”
Dr. Adu Gyamfi
Read Also: Nigeria: Three Crew Members Alive, Seven Missing After Oil Vessel Explosion
