Speaker of Parliament is a threat to Ghana's democracy – Muntaka

The Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, says the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye is being a threat to Ghana’s democracy saying “Mobutu Sese Seko or even Idi Amin will not behave the way he is doing.”

According to Muntaka, the Speaker of Parliament on multiple occasion has refused to give the Minority the opportunity to make their views known on the floor of the house on some salient issues of national concern.

Muntaka made the remark after the Parliament approved the controversial Legal Profession Regulations 2017 L.I. through a voice vote.

According to the Subsidiary Legislation Committee, they recommended that the Ghana Legal Council should not be allowed to conduct interviews for entrants into the Ghana School of Law but entrance examinations for admission into the school should continue.

Muntaka had insisted that the House should have done division voting where every Member of Parliament (MP) is given the opportunity to vote the way they wanted, but claims that he was completely ignored by the Speaker.

According to report Muntaka Mubarak, stood on his feet for close to 20 minutes trying to catch the attention of the Speaker to make his point after the approval of the L.I, but was ignored.

He wanted to challenge the vote and ask for a procedure of division on the voting of the L.I. but he was not given the opportunity.

The minority in Parliament registered their displeasure with the conduct of the Speaker of Parliament, by hooting at him on the floor of the house.

Speaking in an interview with Accra based Citi FM, Muntaka expressed disappointment in the Speaker and called on civil society groups to speak against Professor Oquaye’s actions.

“Civil society should be concerned about how the Speaker is conducting himself, it is so terrible. As for listening to us, you have to listen to us and make your ruling. If we want to challenge your ruling we know what to do, but to deliberately, continuously do what he is doing, I think he is the biggest threat to our democracy.”

Muntaka insisted that per Parliament’s Standing Orders “a member has the right to challenge the vote and ask that you [Speaker] should do either a head count or to go for division.”

“It is not for nothing that when we were voting from four years back to three years [SHS system], Paapa Owusu Ankomah knew that they did not have the numbers in the House, but he wanted it to be on the record that when this thing came to the House, this is what happened. That is why sometimes we call for the votes, but the Speaker deliberately just refused to see any of us.”

“The way he is behaving, I think all of us need to be concerned and be very worried about because it is too much unbecoming of the Speaker. As somebody who has written so many books on theory, now he has the opportunity to turn the theory into practise, and he is completely messing up. I doubt whether Mobutu [Sese Seko] or even Iddi Amin will be behaving the way he is doing. It is too shameful that the Speaker continues to do this and disregard the rules of the house,” the Asawase MP added.

Don’t push me to disrespect you – Haruna ‘warns’ Speaker

Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, in February threatened to disrespect the authority of the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye if his behaviour towards the Minority leadership does not change.

A verbal altercation began during the passage of the Special Petroleum Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018 where Minority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak described the quantum of the decrease in fuel prices as fraudulent.

This brought in the Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu who had strong words for the Speaker after being made to stand on his feet for a while without recognition.

What further infuriated Haruna Iddrisu was the fact that the Speaker rather called the Majority Leader for his contribution, even though he, Haruna Iddrisu, had been on his feet for several minutes.

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