Minority angry with Speaker

The Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, has hinted that the minority may be compelled to file a motion for the removal of the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye.

The Asawase lawmaker observed that the conduct of the Speaker towards the minority smacked of dictatorship.

Speaking last Thursday, the Minority Chief Whip said his side would be forced to come before Parliament with a motion to impeach the Speaker if he didn’t shed off his partisan colours.

Mr Muntaka said even though they did not want to get to that point, they were likely to “draw the battle line” with that motion.

Fracas in Parliament

There was a fracas in Parliament on Thursday when the Minority Leader, MR Haruna Iddrisu, was not recognised by the Speaker when he rose to speak during the passage of the Special Petroleum Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

The outburst follows an attempt by the Minority to arrest a motion by the Majority to reduce, under a certificate of urgency, a special tax imposed on petroleum prices.

According to Alhaji Mubarak, at the time of filing the motion, the House had not formed a quorum.

He said several attempts to draw the attention of the Speaker to that fact failed.

According to him, he stood up for several minutes but the Speaker deliberately turned a blind eye, forcing the Minority Leader himself to rise, with an assured hope that at least, his position as the Minority Leader will be recognised by the Speaker.

He too, was ignored, he suggested to Joy News, saying the Minority Leader stood up for about two to six minutes but did not catch the eye of the Speaker. But when the Majority Leader rose, he was spotted by the Speaker and was given the opportunity to speak.

That did not go down well with Mr Iddrisu and when he was granted the opportunity to speak, he did not fail to register his protest, laced with threats to disrespect the Speaker in return for disrespecting him.

He had wanted to draw the Speaker’s attention to the fact that the motion had to go through a second reading before being passed.

When finally the Minority Leader was given the opportunity to speak, he vented his spleen on the Speaker, saying. “I am sad the way you have treated me as Minority Leader. I stood up before the Majority Leader. You owe me that courtesy and that respect. You cannot even call me after hearing him, you were still not decided whether to hear me or not.

“..May I draw your attention to Order 130 and why I was on my feet. I am within the rules and within the Standing Orders and you must respect the Standing Orders…”

“You owe me every duty and every standard of care to hear me on this. Mr Speaker, you are the chair of this House and you must hold us together. I don’t want to ever disrespect you but if you invite me, I will.”

Motion to impeach

With just 106 members in Parliament, the Minority will need the support of over 50 Majority Members of Parliament (MPs) before the Speaker can be impeached.

With that task almost impossible, Muntaka Mubarak said a motion of impeachment, even if it might not succeed, would make it clear to the Speaker that they could no longer work with him as a Minority.

He stated: “If it persists, they would have no option but to file a motion in the house for his removal,” indicating that Parliament requires the contributions of both sides in order for government business to progress.

In his view, this was not the first time the Speaker had exhibited bias towards the minority in violation of the standing orders of the house.

He observed that the disrespect exhibited by the Speaker to himself and the Minority Leader was enough testimony that he had become “dictatorial.”

Majority Chief Whip

But the Majority Chief Whip, Mr Mathew Nyindam, said the conduct of the Minority Leader was unacceptable.

“The Minority Leader should not allow youthful exuberance to dictate what words he uses on the floor,” he said.

Mr Nyindam was of the belief that Prof. Mike Oquaye had been most accommodating of the Minority’s views.

He suspects the Minority is taking the leniency of the Speaker to be his weakness.

Commenting on what happened on the floor, he explained that this was not the first time a Speaker had given deference to the Majority Leader even when the leader of the Minority was on his feet.

According to him, when Mr Doe Adjaho was Speaker, the Majority Leader had on many occasions been given the opportunity to speak ahead of the Minority Leader only because the Majority Leader was always considered in the House as the leader.

He does not understand why the Minority will suddenly raise issues with a practice so usual in Parliament.