Parliaments main opposition has threatened to walk out of parliamentary proceedings alleging that the Speaker of Parliament is frustrating their efforts to hold the current government administration accountable.
According to National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mubarak Muntaka’s observations, Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike Ocquaye has continually sidelined key NDC MPs during debates.
The Asawase Member of Parliament (MP) related that the Minority Leader, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, once stood up for 15 minutes all and yet was not called by the Speaker. He stated that the same thing also happened to him days ago during a debate regarding the procedure for layig two bills on the floor of parliament.
The Asawase legislator revealed that during the debate he wasn’t allowed to speak “for a long time”, adding that he later had a private word with the Speaker of Parliament regarding his concerns.
“In less than 24 hours, he is still repeating the same thing”, said Hon. Muntaka, who was speaking to members of the media.
Temperature during parliament’s proceedings turned a bit hot when the Minority Leader was denied the right to ask the Agricultural Minister more than one question during his appearance before parliament.
This prompted the Minority Chief Whip to stand up in anger, banging his fist on a table and accusing the Speaker of disrespecting the Minority Leader
“You have to give us space! If the Speaker thinks we should not be here, we will walk out,” he said, speaking on the floor of parliament.
According to Hon. Muntaka, even parliament’s Majority Leader, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu joined the Minority Leader in one occasion converse with the Speaker of Parliament over the issue. “How many times must we remind him?…what else should we do?” Asked Hon. Muntaka, “you can’t have your way, you can’t have your say.
That is just unbearable for us,” Muntaka fumed.
Source: GhanaWeb
