The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has addressed the recent disorderly incidents in Parliament, directing pointed remarks at Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin. Speaking at the launch of a scholarship programme for Members of Parliament, Speaker Bagbin urged lawmakers and the public to rely on the factual record rather than narratives shaped by speculation.
He challenged claims that his conduct in Parliament mirrored the actions of the Minority Leader, saying such references were both inaccurate and unfair.
“You’ve been told often, and sometimes I expect some of you who experience it to respond, but you don’t. And you know, silence means consent. What the minority leader is doing now is not what I did. He has copiously referred to you people that he took inspiration from my record. Please go and read my record.”
Speaker Bagbin emphasised that his tenure in Parliament was characterised by restraint and careful attention to the political environment. “I never on the floor raised my voice. I never on the floor tried to show grandeur on the floor. No. I studied the ecology, the political environment. I tested the pulse of the people, and you play along with that. I didn’t do what you are doing. Please, everybody can go and read.”
He also recounted the only occasion in his parliamentary career when he openly challenged a Speaker, the late Peter Ala Adjetey. “Only one occasion when the Right Honourable Peter Adjetey came and read a statement attacking me personally, that I rose up to say my side of the story. And he would not allow me to do so. My very good friend Papa Akomah, who was the Majority Leader then, stood up and said once he mentioned me specifically, by our Standing Orders, I have the right of reply. And he shouted at him and prevented him and ordered him to sit down.”
Speaker Bagbin described how the confrontation led him to temporarily leave the Chamber in frustration. “And that day I took my books and stormed to my office. My colleagues did not follow me. They continued with the work of Parliament. It was in my office that the then few cameras, led by GTV, questioned why I moved out. And I gave them my side of the story.”
He explained that the incident, which attracted nationwide attention, was later addressed privately with Mr. Adjetey. “I said, if this is how the Speaker was going to go about things on the floor of Parliament, I would go after him. That caught the attention of the whole nation. That is the only instance. And later, when I met him and narrated that he accused me without basis, he pleaded with me to rather tone down my response, which was meaningless. It’s also captured in the official report.”
Speaker Bagbin stressed that this single episode has been misrepresented over time and wrongly used to draw comparisons with current events. “I’m saying this because this has been referred to many times by many people that I behaved the same way when I was Minority Leader. If I did, we could have turned things around within two years, and we almost won the 2004 elections. And these young MPs, the Minister for Education and his team, joined us in 2005. Please, the opportunity is now. And that is why I am saying this.”
His clarification comes amid a year marked by tense parliamentary sessions, including ministerial vettings of Kwabena Mintah Akandoh and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and the recent vetting of Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, where debates focused heavily on remarks made by the Minority Leader, which the majority leader described as an attack on the nominee.
