The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has revealed the enormous power he wields as one of the legislative arms of g overnment.
According to him the law gives Parliament the power to remove a president but does not give the same powers to a president to be able to remove a Speaker of Parliament.
He made this known at the post-budget forum held at Ho in the Volta Region over the weekend. He used the moment to explain that Parliament approves budgets that benefit the executive more than the legislature and the judiciary.
This, he said was their own making and asked that steps be taken to fix the situation.
“This year, all the laws we have been passing are laws we passed to benefit the executive, even we forget about Parliament in the language we use, this is self-inflicted; it is not a deficiency in the constitution, it’s a deficiency in Parliament itself. We must correct it”, he said.
“Let me reemphasized that the 8th Parliament is properly positioned not to allow itself to be bullied into playing second fiddle to the executive. Parliament can remove His Excellency the President; His Excellency cannot do that to Parliament. As Speaker, His Excellency cannot remove me, but I can through Parliament get him [the president] removed”.
He however added that though he has such powers, he will not do it.
Bagbin who was the former Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli Kaleo Constituency and Second Deputy Speaker of the 7th Parliament was elected Speaker for the 8th Parliament of the Fourth Republic on January 7, 2021.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) side of the House beat the New Patriotic Party (NPP) side with three votes to put Mr. Bagbin ahead of the immediate past Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, who was re-nominated by the NPP caucus.
SOURCE: www.Ghgossip.com
