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Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has hinted that the fight against corruption will be a key plank of Parliament’s activities this year.

Bagbin disclosed in an interview on the state broadcaster, GTV, late last year that he was also engaging in broad stakeholder consultation as a means of strengthening the institution of Parliament.

“I have listened to President Akufo-Addo a number of times and all the others that I have mentioned and I have listened to their counsel and I don’t run away from sharing what I am sharing with all Ghanaians about my understanding of how multiparty democracy has been practiced from country to country.

“From next year (i.e. 2022), apart from the focus on corruption, you will see me not only speaking but acting to change even the dress code and the code of conduct of Members of Parliament. As leaders we must show the way, we must show direction,” he stated on the last edition of the Momeen Tonight show for the year 2021.

Earlier in the interview, he explained his central role in handing the role of Chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee to a Member of Parliament with finance background instead of the position being occupied by the Minority Leader.

The first year of Bagbin’s tenure as Speaker has been tainted by chaotic scenes that marked his ascension to the position and same in the last but one sitting as MPs disagreed on the passage of the controversial E-levy bill.

Bagbin has slammed the incidents on the floor, describing members as having dishonored themselves on the floor of the house. He was not presiding at the time of all three occasions where violence broke out.

Retired Bagbin’s rise to Speakership

On January 7, 2021, as the current Parliament convened to elect a speaker, his name popped up as the preferred candidate by the main opposition National Democratic Congress as against the candidature of the then outgoing speaker, Aaron Mike Oquaye, of the governing New Patriotic Party.

After a rancorous voting process which involved shouting and hurling of invectives by Members of Parliament-elect, kicking of voting booths and snatching of ballot papers, not to talk of a military invasion of the chamber, Alban Bagbin was elected speaker.

Whiles the NDC insists he won the vote outright, the NPP said he was a consensus candidate between the two sides of the house. The NPP agreed to play ball because they had a presidential inauguration to attend, which event the Minority had said they will boycott.
Joi