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Parliament: When Bagbin decides to tell a ‘red’ lie
Many Ghanaians strongly believe that the Rt. Honourable Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, is not a robot and can never act as one.
Many also believe that Rt. Honourable Bagbin will not allow himself to be ‘programmed’ as autopilot or ‘a human post office’ where ‘people’ will post their ‘letters’ for him to read to compromise his venerable position as the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament.
A lot of Ghanaians also hold the view that Rt. Honourable Bagbin is now ‘a national human property’ for all Ghanaians not only for his political party, the National Democratic Congress.
But latest development in the recent visitation of the Ethiopian Parliamentary delegation to Ghana seems to be erasing the lofty assertions made by a number of Ghanaians about our Rt. Honourable Speaker of Parliament.
One may ask: What is the beef?
The Speaker of Parliament in a recent interaction with a delegation from the Ethiopian Parliament is reported to have said; “but for last minute movements where some parliamentary seats were snatched by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) , the NDC would have had Majority in Parliament.”
Reportedly, Rt. Honourable Bagbin said:”The NPP General Secretary, John Boadu, even admitted that the NDC won more seats in Parliament, but some last-minute moves were made to snatch some of the seats from the NDC.”
Rt. Honourable Bagbin reportedly added:”That one is a statement of fact.”
Expectedly, the NPP General Secretary has described the claim by Rt. Honourable Bagbin that parliamentary majority went in favour of the Opposition NDC as “falsehood.”
“There is no iota of truth in such statement made by Rt. Honourable Bagbin to the Ethiopian Parliament since I have never stated anywhere that the NPP devised tactics to get parliamentary majority in its favour,” John Boadu has said.
He insists that ; “the NPP has always maintained in its post elections comment that the party won majority of the parliamentary seats.”
But the question is: Has Mr Bagbin himself got water-tight evidence to back what he allegedly told the Ethiopian Parliamentary delegation?
Assuming the NPP General Secretary said exactly what Mr Speaker is quoting him to have said; does it make his statement true? Where is the evidence to justify that the so-called statement made by the NPP General Secretary is nothing but the truth?
Readers, do you remember? While waiting for the declaration of the December 7, 2020 election results, former President John Dramani Mahama said at a press conference in Accra that:”We have won the elections. We have also won 140 parliamentary seats and what else do we expect?”
He stressed:” I am happy Ghanaians have rejected the Akufo-Addo government,” and asked his NDC supporters to take to the streets and jubilate.
Additionally, former President Mahama stated:”The Akufo-Addo government is using the military to change the results of the elections to favour Akufo-Addo and his NPP.”
So, Rt. Honourable Bagbin: From what former President Mahama is quoted to have said; be said to be true? Where is the evidence to back it? Is it because the statement is coming from ex-President Mahama, it must be accepted as the ‘gospel’ truth?
Rt. Honourable Bagbin: You are known as a very competent lawyer. Not so? In the ‘ game of law, ‘ is it not the case that EVIDENCE is supreme? So, where is the evidence that what you told the Ethiopian Parliamentary delegation actually happened?
If you cannot produce the evidence, is it not the case that you told a ‘red’ lie to the Ethiopian delegation?
And after the declaration of the presidential results, Mr Mahama and the NDC roundly rejected the results, claiming that the will of the people had been subverted and that “the proper verdict of the people had been stolen.”
Rt. Honourable Bagbin: So, did you believe; and do you still believe the statement above? If you believe the statement to be true; is it because it is coming from ex-President Mahama and the NDC? And do you have any evidence to support such a statement?
Mr Speaker: In spite of the ‘apparent truth’ you believed in ; was it not strange to you when ex-President Mahama went to Supreme Court, rather seeking injunction, directing the Electoral Commission to conduct another election between him and President Akufo-Addo ?
And that President Akufo Addo did not cross the constitutional threshold of 50 per cent plus one, to warrant the declaration of the presidential election results in his favour?
Mr Speaker: Were you surprised that the “stolen verdict” chorus; “the government using the military to change the election results”; and “the Electoral Commission attempting to change the election results to favour Akufo-Addo”; all evaporated from ex-President Mahama’s petition to the Supreme Court?
The simple answer is ; ex-President Mahama did not have any evidence anywhere to support his ’emotional’ statements.
Rt. Honourable Bagbin: Since you decided to follow “the ‘red‘ lie tangent”, you might have, as well, relayed the ’emotional’ statements made by your party to the Ethiopian delegation and topped it up with the Supreme Court ruling.
From a distance, Mr Speaker, I can tell with all the confidence at my command, that your reasoning prowess is more than excellent. So, why do you descend into the ‘red’ lie zone?
Readers, now let’s listen to Professor Edward Gyampo of the University of Ghana: “Bagbin is expected to be very firm and neutral person who will not even do the bidding of his own party and he sounded that caution.
“And if he begins to make such statements not backed by evidence, you open yourself up for needless criticisms.”
Professor Gyampo says: “They went to court. If they had that evidence, they should have shown this there. These things have been settled because we have handled them in court by the ruling.
“For a whole Speaker to be saying this; I mean, it’s a bit problematic because if you do that, it undermines the expected neutrality.”
Over to you, Rt. Honourable Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin. Any response?
Contact email/WhatsApp of author:
asmahfrankg@gmail.com (0505556179)
By G Frank Asmah
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
