Bagbin seated between Akufo-Addo and VP Bawumia in January 2021
Bagbin in March bragged with his position as the third most powerful man in Ghana
Eight months on, he agrees he could be the second most powerful by law
He cites a Supreme Court justice who explains why the Vice President could be the fourth in rank
In March 2021, Speaker of
Read full articletarget='_blank' href='/GhanaHomePage/people/person.php?ID=3205'>Parliament, Alban Bagbin ‘clashed’ with his former colleague and leader of the Majority group in the house.
The point of divergence was the manner in which a petition to probe the collapse of two banks was laid before the house following which the Speaker ordered a seven-member bipartisan panel to probe same.
When Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu challenged Bagbin’s orders, the two engaged in an exchange that boiled down to who was powerful in the house.
"You have to be my friend; not me to be your friend. At least I have a position in Ghana: Number Three. What is your number?” Bagbin said.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu shot back: "Mr. Speaker, your Number Three is not in government."
Bagbin: "No, I didn't say in government, I said in the country Ghana. What is your position in the country? Number...…?"
Then Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu replied that he was a “versatile utility player, which may have much more significance than yours’.
Alban Bagbin continued along his line of questioning asking the Majority Leader to state the number of his position amidst loud laughs from the floor.
Eight months on, Bagbin is not exactly claiming to have gone a step up but is attributing his ‘elevation’ to an explanation given by a Justice of the Supreme Court.
Speaking at a gathering of lawmakers over the weekend, Bagbin disclosed that the unnamed Justice had explained that there were three arms of government and their respective leaders held powers as stated in the law.
“When you start from His Excellency the President, you have to go to the Vice before you come to the Speaker and then you go to the Chief Justice,” he stated of the known power hierarchy under the current Constitution.
“But we have three arms of government… my colleagues in the Supreme Court told me that actually, you are not number three, you are number two. All those who were present at that meeting were convinced when the Supreme Court judge made the submission and justified it.
“It is not me saying it. I have said I am number three but they said I am number two. The three arms of government – the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary – are equal arms of government, and must be treated as such,” he added.
What the law says about presidential powers
Article 60(11) of the 1992 constitution reads: “Where the President and the Vice-President are both unable to perform the functions of the President, the Speaker of Parliament shall perform those functions until the President or the Vice-President is able to perform those functions or a new President assumes office, as the case may be.”
In the first term of the Akufo-Addo government, Speaker Mike Oquaye acted as President in the absence of Akufo-Addo and Bawumia, almost a year since the second term started, there hasn’t arisen the need for Bagbin to be handed presidential powers.
Retired Bagbin’s rise to Speakership
On January 7, 2021, as the current Parliament convened to elect a speaker, his name popped up as the preferred candidate by the main opposition National Democratic Congress as against the candidature of the then outgoing speaker, Aaron Mike Oquaye, of the governing New Patriotic Party.
After a rancorous voting process which involved shouting and hurling of invectives by Members of Parliament-elect, kicking of voting booths and snatching of ballot papers, not to talk of a military invasion of the chamber, Alban Bagbin was elected speaker.
Whiles the NDC insists he won the vote outright, the NPP said he was a consensus candidate between the two sides of the house. The NPP agreed to play ball because they had a presidential inauguration to attend, which event the Minority had said they will boycott.
