The speaker of Parliament, Right Honourable Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin has stated that there is no NPP or NDC Speaker but only a Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana.
He said unlike my counterpart in the American House of Representatives, the Ghanaian Speaker is not a Member of the House and the Ghanaian Speaker presides over but does not participate in proceedings of the House; and he or she has no vote, not even a casting vote, in matters before the House.
Speaking on the floor of the Eighth Parliament to begin work, Hon. Bagbin said the Speakership in Ghana is designed to be even more impartial and more apolitical than the Speaker of the House of Commons in Westminster.
He added, “It is indeed to ensure that the Speaker remains impartial in presiding over the affairs of this House and Parliament that his election is done by secret ballot.”
“The independence and impartiality of the Speaker is particularly evident from one line in the Speaker’s Oath. That line is not found in the Presidential Oath, the Oath of Vice-President, the Oath for Ministers of State and Cabinet, or the Oath of a Member of Parliament. That line reads: “And I will do right to all manner of persons by the Constitution and the laws and conventions of Parliament without fear or favor, affection or ill will.” That last phrase, “without fear or favor, affection or ill will”, defines the office of the Speaker as an impartial, nonpartisan office. I assure you I don’t take this Oath lightly at all. The only other Oaths in the Second Schedule to the Constitution of the Fourth Republic in which you find this same language are the Judicial Oath and the Oath of the Auditor-General. This is because, like the Speaker, these offices to are meant to be nonpartisan, impartial, and independent.”
The speaker said much has been made of the fact that he came to this position from a long career as a politician and member of the National Democratic Congress, one of the two parties represented in this House.
“As far as I am concerned, that fact is of no consequence to my new role as Speaker. It is not a novelty in this House. I have worked harmoniously with Speakers of diverse political backgrounds, including on one occasion supporting the nomination for re-election as Speaker of the 4th Republic, a well-known figure of the New Patriotic Party.”
“But more importantly, as I have made clear, the office I now occupy is an impartial, independent, and apolitical office, akin, in that regard, to the position of a Justice or Chief Justice. Just as a person with a known party affiliation like myself could be appointed to the Supreme Court, so it is with the Speakership. What matters, above all, is that once appointed as a Chief Justice or Justice or elected as a Speaker, that person, regardless of his political past, must conduct himself or herself by the requirements and ethics of his or her new office and, as expressed in the Oath of that office, without fear or favor, affection or ill-will.”
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Kofi Atakora
