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Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin said an opposition leader did not need to fight the one in power to present his party as a credible alternative government.
According to him, some people think that the noble art of the opposition is to fight the government in power for electoral advantage by saying that an opposing leader does not “oppose for the good of the opposition”.
Mr. Bagbin made the statement during an interaction with a delegation from the Joint Council of Political Parties of Ethiopia (EPPJC) to Parliament on Wednesday.
The delegation, which was headed by Dr Rahel Bafe, was made up of leaders of political parties and a few members of the Ethiopian Parliament.
“Opposition is not about fighting whoever is in power because when it comes to change, nothing can stop it. This is one of the things that nothing can stop. It will happen when it does, ”Bagbin said.
The president went on to say that while he was the leader of the minority, a Nigerian parliamentarian asked him if he was really the leader of the opposition in the Ghanaian parliament at the time due to his collaboration with the majority leader and then president when they attended the meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in Nigeria. .
“I moved with the then president and the majority leader. We were always together – sitting, talking and eating together – and one of the Nigerian MPs stopped me and said, “They say you are the opposing leader in Ghana and I said yes. Are you sure you are the opposing leader? And I said yes, I’m the opposing leader, ”he recounted, adding,“ And he asked how can you sleep on the same bed with them and you said you are an opposite leader? And I said you wanna see me fight them? It is not opposition.
“The Nigerian MP told me this could never happen in Nigeria. Are you from Rawlings’ party and I said yes. So you sat there and let the opposition party take over you? And I said we weren’t even seated; we were standing and they took it from us. It can never happen in Nigeria, but it has finally happened, ”he said.
Power modification
According to the president, there has been a change in power in Ghana since the enactment of the 1992 Constitution, indicating that “every eight years there is usually a change”.
“Our colleagues, like us – yes we have done it before, are saying today that as for the next election, they will win it. Yes, they say they will break it.
“In 2016 my party, the NDC, said the same thing. As for that one, they sure broke it. We didn’t break it. They are now saying they will. We hear them; we’ll see if they can do it, ”he said.
He assured Ghanaians that it would not be his intervention for power to change hands, noting “because while I sit, I will do everything, when I exercise my functions as president, to be impartial”.
“It’s not when I perform my duties as a member of my party. It’s different. This one, I cannot be impartial. I must fulfill my function as a party, ”he nevertheless indicated.
“But as Speaker, I will do anything to be impartial on the floor of the House. I will not satisfy the NDC and I will not satisfy the NPP. They will both be against me.
“I have to please the good people of Ghana and move the course of democracy forward. It is the national interest that must prevail, ”he stressed.
He told his guests that Ghana had moved from the mantra “the minority should have its say and the majority in its own way” to “the majority and the minority should have their say, but the national interest must have a say. his say ”.
“We’re not just talking about good governance or multi-party democracy. No! We are moving towards an inclusive and participatory democracy, which is more a matter of smart governance; not good governance as defined by the Commonwealth Conference in Zimbabwe.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament
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