Hung Parliament

The late Chinua Achebe, the renowned Nigerian writer, was not an ordinary writer, but also a prophet.

His prophetic words of wisdom keep resonating on the Ghanaian political scene lately.

The prophetic words of wisdom which admonish all humankind to be very circumspect in life according to one’s background can be found in his book “Things Fall Apart”.

Among the wise sayings in his book is this one, “Those whose palm kernels have been cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.”

Speaker

On January 1, 2021, Ghana was to choose a new Speaker of Parliament.

The choice was between Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye, a known New Patriotic Party (NPP) senior member, then incumbent, and Alban Bagbin, a veteran National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP).

For the first time in Ghana’s political history, we had what we call a Hung Parliament, 137 for NPP, 137 for NDC and one independent candidate.

Technically and legally, the number on the NDC side should have been 136 because the NDC MP for Assin North had no business being in Parliament, because a Cape Coast High Court had ruled that he was ineligible to sit in Parliament as a parliamentarian as he had contravened an electoral law.

Disregard

However, in blatant disregard for the ruling of a court of competent jurisdiction, members of his party and clerks of Parliament shielded him to indulge in illegality by allowing him to vote.

I am not in position to say which way he voted, but looking at the partisan way we conduct our politics in Ghana, you do not need a prophet to tell you where his vote did go. By some strange turn of events, some NPP MPs abstained from voting.

The work of the benevolent spirit was complete and Bagbin is now Speaker of Parliament!

Suddenly, the humble Bagbin as I knew him started calling himself the number three gentleman of the Republic.

Convoy

I used to follow Prof. Oquaye on weekends whenever he was going home to spend the weekend at his private residence at Haatso, for I live in that direction.

I even thought I had a problem with his security detail as being wasteful; a police escort, followed by a Land Cruiser presumably occupied by his personal security, followed by the Speaker himself, and a police vehicle, and another police motor rider at the rear.

I never for once saw a military vehicle in his convoy, and this happened for years without an incident.

Those blessed to be in positions of responsibility should try to be prudent with the taxpayers’ money, for little, little things do matter.

The writer is a lawyer.
E-mail: Adomakoacheampong55@gmail.com