Majority Leader is power drunk - Minority Leader

Accra, March 12, GNA - Mr Alban Bagbin, the Minority Leader in Parliament on Friday described the Majority Leader, Mr Felix Owusu Adjapong as being power drunk in an interview with the Ghana News Agency.

He said Mr Adjapong by styling himself as the Leader of the House smacked of power drunkenness since there was no such office in Ghana's system of government.

The Majority Leader, who is also the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, has in recent times been trying to get his colleagues and even the Speaker of Parliament to address him as Leader of the House in accordance with Section 11 of the Parliamentary Service Act, Act 460.

Section 11 of the Act says: "The Minister responsible for Parliamentary Affairs or the Leader of the House shall liaise between Parliament, the Office of the President, Cabinet and the Parliamentary Service on any matters that relate to the institutions."

Things came to a head recently when the Minority Leader challenged the Majority Leader that they both were colleague Leaders in the House, saying that the latter was, therefore, not the Leader of the House. The argument advanced by the Majority Leader on the floor of the House, based on the section quoted above, was to the effect that in his capacity as the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, he was also the Leader of the House.

Mr Owusu Adjapong had said in Parliament that unless Section 11 of the Act was amended, he remained the Leader of the House, despite what the Minority Leader, The Speaker and the rest of the people, who constituted the composite Leadership of the House thought.

Mr Bagbin told the GNA that the Majority Leader's claim did not exist in the system of Government Ghana runs, adding: "We run a Presidential system, under which Parliament is not supreme so we cannot possibly have a Leader of the House as exists in the Parliamentary system of government."

He said in the Section 11 of the Parliamentary Service Act, on which the Majority Leader was basing his claim for more power, there was a clear distinction between the Minister responsible for Parliamentary Affair and the Leader of the House.

Mr Bagbin explained that the Section did not say: "Minister of Parliament Affairs and Leader of the House," but "Minister for Parliamentary Affairs or the Leader of the House."

He said, by interpretation, the liaison work assigned for those two roles, could be done by a Minister for Parliamentary Affairs in the case of a Presidential System of Government or by the Leader of the House, who is also the Prime Minister in the case of Parliamentary Supremacy. "What the Majority Leader is proposing is that he wants to be called the Prime Minister of this country, which is not right," he said.

"In our case, we have a composite Leadership of the House made up of 10 persons, including the Majority Leader, his Deputy, Majority Chief Whip and his two deputies as well as the Minority Leader and his Deputy and the Minority Chief Whip and his two deputies."

He noted that the Office of the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs was a political appointment, which could change at anytime, saying that the President could even decide to appoint a non-Parliamentarian to that Office.

"Is the Majority Leader saying that even when a non-Parliamentarian is appointed to the Office of the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, that same person is also the Leader of the House?" Mr Bagbin asked. The Minority Leader said the Speaker, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey and the other members of Leadership of the House have had occasion both on and off the floor of the House to make the Majority understand "this simple thing, but the man is power drunk, he doesn't want to listen to anybody."

Mr Bagbin said the Majority Leader caused a lot of tension among the members of the Standing Order Committee recently when the Committee met at Elmina and Swedru to review the Standing Orders, with this same issue of he being accorded the respect as Leader of the House.

He said the Speaker and the Leadership of the House had had occasion to complain several times about the Majority Leader's attitude to the rulings of the Speaker, citing the example of the Speaker's ruling on a matter involving Mr Kwamena Bartels, Minister of Private Sector Development and the Parliament Assurance Committee.

Mr Bagbin said the Speaker had ruled that a Special Committee be constituted, and he (the Speaker) constituted that Special Committee and appointed the Majority Leader to chair the committee, which was given 10 days to complete its work.

He said, "I am a member of that Committee and I have asked the Majority Leader several times to call a meeting but he usually tells me he is not bound by the rules of the Speaker and that Mr Bartels and the Assurances Committee would sort themselves out politically."

"The Majority Leader seem to think that his government employed the Speaker so in their capacity as the Speaker's employer, they tell the Speaker what to do and not the other way round," Mr Bagbin said. Mr Adjapong declined to comment on Mr Bagbin's assertions and asked the GNA to "go and read the Section 11 of the Parliamentary Service Act and decide for yourself."