Must we always be fighting?
Does an MP or a Caucus in Parliament have the right to disagree with a ruling by the Speaker?
Why not? In the immediate past Parliament, we saw a whole Majority Leader, Kyei Mensah Bonsu, and Speaker Bagbin at each other’s throats. Exchanges between Muntaka Mohammed, as Minority Leader, and the Speaker were often nasty.
Beyond orally disagreeing, what can an MP/caucus do to get their will done?
From events in the immediate past, the recourse is to court.
Current Minority Leader, Osahene Afenyo Markin, in his tenure as Majority Leader in the eighth Parliament, showed us the way to the Supreme Court.
I didn’t find it unusual, therefore, that only last June 10, 2025, there was heated confrontation between the Minority, as a caucus, and the First Deputy Speaker over his refusal to allow a statement on the strike by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association.
The resultant stand-off escalated to the near physical removal of the Ranking Member on the Health Committee, Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie, by a Parliamentary Marshal.
The Majority Leader had moved for adjournment following routine parliamentary business, but Dr Afriyie, agitated, rose to demand an urgent discussion on the GRNMA strike.
The Deputy Speaker, however, ruled him out of order, citing procedural breaches.
When Afriyie insisted, the Deputy Speaker summoned marshals to escort him out.
Hell broke loose. It was not the worst in Ghana’s parliamentary history but it was, as far as I recall, the first time any caucus was physically interposing between the Speaker and an MP, in carrying out lawful order.
Shouting matches have taken place in Parliament since this Western democratic institution was set up in the UK in 1707, but I have never seen an MP, let alone a lady, eyes blazing, literally roll up her sleeves, rearing for a fight.
Shouting and gesticulating, she pounded her way to the front of the protesters and stood almost toe-to-toe with the marshal, daring him to bring it on!
Question
My question, firstly to the Minority Caucus and secondly to the lady MP, was that a civilised way to sort out issues in a house of laws where battles are won, not with brawn but intellectual acumen and mental acuity, in a hallowed chamber from where the combatants carry off the trophy of mental prowess exercised in civility?
In his official role, the Speaker, in moderating debates and making rulings on procedure, decides who may speak.
Thinking aloud, I am inclined to ask: did the disrespect to the Speaker’s Chair have anything to do with the person of the Deputy Speaker?
Would the Minority have behaved in the same way if Bagbin had been in the Chair?
On Friday, January 31, 2025, I drew in a deep breath, waiting to see how Bagbin would react to the day’s violence, including the destruction of tables and ministerial microphones during vetting.
I exhaled when, at the next sitting, the Speaker acted decisively. He suspended four prominent MPs for two weeks.
Violence
What is causing the violence? Simple: one set of Ghanaians is eating with two hands, while the other set has no hands and no food.
That is the ‘Winner Takes All’ in our choice of democracy: people will die fighting to have their presidential candidate elected.
Outside of Parliament, this week, ugly noises have dominated airtime and newspaper space in the run-up to the Akwatia by-election.
In my opinion, this was one completely avoidable contest.
Methinks the NDC should have allowed NPP to take back its seat without a fight; after all, how much more numerical weight does the NDC want in Parliament?
After the fatal August 6 helicopter crash, one would have thought that the loudest way to mourn and honour the memory of the eight fallen heroes would have been for the NDC to declare a no-contest, in grim and sacred reciprocity after NPP's declaration of no-contest in the impending Tamale Central by-election.
Ridge Hospital
Outside of politics, there was violence at the Ridge Hospital in Accra. What is remarkable about this incident is that the young man said to have caused the assault, a Ralph Saint Williams, says he has no regrets for his action because he was using the incident to draw attention to the deplorable conditions at the hospital.
Beg your pardon, young man. Must poor and hapless health workers be the ones to bear the brunt of society’s anger for governments’ failed responsibility?
At any case, would he have gone physical if the nurses had been male – only one male? Fits my definition of a bully: one who yearns for a fight when they see someone they can beat.
Even more remarkable is that the Health Minister, on arrival at the scene, embraced the young man.
What an official endorsement of violence! Would the minister have done same if the victims had included his (minister’s) sisters?
At any rate, why would Ralph Saint Williams beat nurses and embrace the minister, the policy maker whose inactions (as government) have been responsible for all the shortages in the hospitals?
What a country!!!
The writer is the Executive Director,
Centre for Communication and Culture.
E-mail: ashonenimil@gmail.com
0208 178 680/0544 663 737
