General News of Friday, 11 November 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin and the Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka clashed in Parliament on Thursday, November 10, 2022, when a motion of censure against Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta was moved by Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu.
After a preliminary objection was raised by Deputy Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, and shot down; the speaker delivered a ruling in which he directed that the vote of censure be referred to a committee.
But the Minority through Muntaka sought to explain why there was no need for a referral to a committee but instead why there was the need to proceed to a vote on the matter citing wording in the relevant rules.
Muntaka's submission appeared to have veered into an area where the Speaker robustly stepped in, charging the MP of attacking his ruling.
He ordered Muntaka to retract and apologize, which order Muntaka expressly refused to heed neither did he listen to orders to resume his seat.
The Speaker subsequently ordered all he said when he had been asked to sit to be expunged from the Hansard - i.e. the official records of the House.
Below is a transcript of the Bagbin vs. Muntaka banter:
Muntaka: Mr. Speaker, with all respect and humility to you, in this text, nowhere did it say Mr. Speaker will refer the matter to any ad hoc committee. It says that the House will take a decision and decisions in this House Mr. Speaker is taken by vote.
So, if any member can move a motion… Mr. Speaker, it is for the decision of this House, that is what Order 106 is saying.
Bagbin: Hon, you are completely, completely out of order. Hon. Member, I don’t take my rulings lightly, please. You are attacking my ruling and I think you don’t have that authority to do so. If you want to attack my ruling, come by a substantive motion.
Your understanding of ‘during the debate,’…. debate of matters before the House is not only during the plenary session. At the committee level, what you do there is to debate. That is why when you agree at the committee level and you come and put the matter here, you don’t waste time to debate again.
Bagbin proceeded to explain that plenary rules applied to the committee level, explaining further that the decision is taken by the House not the speaker but also that the rules say motion for censure “will be made by a member and referred to a committee, that is exactly what I said I am going to do.”