I’m doing all I can to support gov’t agenda – Bagbin

Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has parried off criticisms that he is doing the bidding of his party, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

According to him, he is doing all he can to get government’s programmes and policies implemented albeit in the interest of all.

“I keep on saying that I conform to transform. . .and so what I am doing is to do all I can to support government to implement its agenda but not at the expense of the values and principles of democracy,” Mr Bagbin stated while addressing a forum of former Parliamentarians held at his behest on Thursday, December 23.

The forum brought together living former Legislators from the Third Republic through the First Parliament of the Fourth Republic to the Seventh Parliament to discuss issues relating to their welfare and how the former lawmakers can contribute towards depeening Ghana’s parliamentary democracy.

Criticisms have emerged from certain quarters, particularly the Majority, that the Speaker is to blame for what is happening in the Eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

He was absent on Monday, December 20 when members of the two caucuses were embroiled in fisticuffs much to the chagrin of well-meaning Ghanaians.

The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has laid the blame at the doorstep of his former colleague Alban Bagbin, who is the only Ghanaian to have served more time in Parliament than him.

But Mr Bagbin said the change after the 2020 elections with nearly equal numbers for both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the NDC in Parliament is an opening for transformation for Ghana’s democracy.

“So, the turbulence we are experiencing now is the attempt to make a change.

“It is not me changing the rules. The game has changed and the rules have changed. If not, you cannot work with the old rules to implement the new change.”