Parliamentary sitting on Tuesday, March 23, ended with a little drama when the Speaker, Alban Bagbin, exchanged words with Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.

“It is not for the Speaker to be a jury and a judge at the same time. The Speaker does not take the decisions of the House, but it is the House that takes the decisions,” Alban Bagbin said in a matter involving some former indigenous bank owners who have petitioned Parliament to probe why the Bank of Ghana directed by the Ministry of Finance took over their property and gave it to Consolidated Bank Ghana, a bank formed solely for that purpose. “By reason of the Constitution and Standing Orders, I do not have powers to be disallowing petitions.

Bagbin added: “Petitions are not necessarily directed at the government or members of the government; they are concerns raised by concerned citizens on issues that they feel they must get some relief [on] and one of the sources is to go through their MPs to the House.”

Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu who was not pleased with the Speaker’s position said: “You have made a statement to the effect that the petition must be referred to a committee to make some proposals, but perhaps we will leave it like that. But I disagree with the position that you have taken.”

Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu then reminded the Speaker of Parliament, who is a former MP, that when he, the latter was Deputy Speaker cum MP, he always insisted that members should speak from their seats so that he would be able to identify them.

However, since Bagbin became Speaker, he, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has observed that Bagbin has been relaxing the rules he had been preaching. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, therefore, urged Bagbin to be consistent.

What brought about the exchange?

Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, the Speaker of the 8th Parliament, made known to the parliamentarians a petition he had received from the owners of the defunct UT Bank and uniBank over the revocation of their licences by the Bank of Ghana in 2018 during the banking clean-up exercise.

The Speaker subsequently directed that a seven-member parliamentary committee be formed in order to look into the petition and make recommendations to the House.

Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu who also doubles as Minister for Parliamentary Affairs rose to challenge the procedure Mahama Ayariga (NDC – Bawku Central MP) used to lay the aforementioned petition before the House.

The Speaker overruled the Majority Leader's assertion and hit the gavel on his desk for order. This resulted in a back and forth between the Speaker and the Majority Leader.

Speaker Bagbin insisted that the Standing Orders of the House made it clear that when a citizen had to petition the House, the citizen does so through an MP, who has two options – either to present such a petition as a Motion or could come through the Speaker’s direction to lay such a petition.

The Speaker then advised that the House should work out processes and procedures on how to handle petitions under the new Standing Orders which are being prepared.

Then the exchanges

It appears the Speaker was not pleased with the Majority Leader’s intervention so he said to the Majority Leader:

"Honourable Majority Leader, the business of government is led by you in this House. You don't lead parliament, you lead the business of the House, you lead the Majority, and you lead government business. As to the role of the Speaker, you haven't reached there yet, when you get there, you do so. Please, you've been my very good friend for all these years until I became Speaker and everybody in Ghana is doubting whether you are really my friend. I've received a lot of calls about that, and I said you are my friend, and you are still my friend but people are doubting it. Please don't give credence to that doubt."

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu then interjected:

"Mr Speaker, respectfully, I have been your friend until you became the Speaker. You and I know that we are still friends but we agree to disagree…..Mr Speaker, Majority Leaders don't always act as leaders of the majority caucus and also when their party is in power as leaders of government business, but a majority leader is a leader of the House.”

The Speaker rebutted:

"But you are not the leader of the Speaker. You know, the mood in which you disagree with me is what is giving credence to whether you are still my friend. It looks like you are my former friend now because I hear you always on air disagreeing with me and so [vehemently] that people are doubting. Is this really my friend? So I'm just drawing your attention; if you want to continue to be my friend, then you know the proper thing to do," this drew laughter from the floor.

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu responded further by saying it was not for him to want continuous friendship with the Speaker, and that friendship must be mutual.

Alban Bagbin retorted:

"You have to be my friend; not me to be your friend. At least I have a position in Ghana: Number Three. What is your number?”

Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu then shot back:

"Mr Speaker, your Number Three is not in government."

Bagbin: "No, I didn't say in government, I said in the country Ghana. What is your position in the country? Number...…?"

Then Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu replied that he was a “versatile utility player, which may have much more significance than yours’.

Alban Bagbin then pressed on, asking the Majority Leader to state the number of his position amidst loud laughs from the floor.