Parliament rejects 2022 budget
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu takes on Bagbin over rejection of Budget
Controversy over Bagbin’s exit from Parliament
Prior to his rise to the speakership position, Alban Bagbin and Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, were said to have the best of relationships despite belonging to opposing sides of the divide.
With Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu being the leader of government business, Bagbin’s attainment of the Speakership role was thus seen to be a test of their friendship.
The jury was therefore out on whether their friendship which had been well highlighted will stand the test of time.
Safe to say since Bagbin assumed the role on January 7, there have been instances where his ‘good friend’, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has fired him.
The 2022 budget in particular has led to the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs taking on his ‘good friend’.
Below are three instances Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu slammed Alban Bagbin over 2022 budget
Bow your head in shame
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu took on Alban Bagbin after he superintendent over the Minority’s rejection of the 2022 budget.
The Majority said the conduct of Alban Bagbin on November 27, 2021, was shameful and should not be countenanced.
“In any event, even if you go with 137, it is still less than one-half of the 275 members of the chamber, so, when he puts the question, the Speaker should have known that the number would not support the decision of the house.
“So, that purported decision is a nullity and does not have any effect on anybody”, he said.
“So, to that extent, the motion that has been moved by the Finance Minister has not been lost”, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu insisted, stressing “it still stands.”
He added that“By necessary implication, that exercise that was engaged in is a complete nullity, and I believe that whoever presided over this should bow down his head in shame.”
Bagbin setting dangerous precedent
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu also levelled some serious allegations against Alban Bagbin with the accusation that the Speaker of Parliament might have taken acted as Speaker whiles on leave in Dubai.
He claimed that Bagbin approved a motion by the minority whiles on leave in Dubai.
Speaking to Citi News, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs said: “The First Deputy Speaker is assuming full responsibility for the transaction of business in the Chamber, but my understanding is that the Rt. Hon. Speaker has minuted on the motion [from the Minority] that he has admitted it. If that is the case, then we are in for something dangerous.”
Bagbin deliberately frustrating budget
On Thursday, December 23, 2021, The MP for Suame released the biggest of the allegations against Alban Bagbin.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu claimed that Bagbin is deliberately frustrating the passing of the E-levy because his demand for a percentage of the budget for the legislature was not adhered to by government.
Speaking to the press on Thursday, the Suame MP stated, “we are where we are because in my view of the genesis of the presentation of this Budget, the day when this Budget came to be presented, we were in the chamber, and we all saw that after the Finance Minister had walked in, we had to be at the Speaker’s office for close to 1 hour. We were not coming out.
“Why weren’t we coming out? We were not coming out because we had a Speaker who told the Finance Minister that because he had not given Parliament an amount of ¢1.72 billion, that he the Speaker has requested the Finance Minister to give to Parliament, he the Speaker was going to ensure that the Budget was rejected. That is what happened that day.”