Sammy Gyamfi, National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress ‘might have spoken’ from a position of ‘ignorance’ with his attack on the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia has said.
Sammy Gyamfi, it will be recalled, went ballistic on Bagbin and the leadership of the Minority caucus following the approval of some ministerial nominees.
“This is the time for us to insist on the right changes in the leadership of the NDC group in Parliament or forget about them completely. The current leadership have lost their moral authority to lead and are not fit to sit on the front bench of the NDC side of the House.
“More importantly, it’s about time we understood that we don’t have any NDC Speaker of Parliament. No, we don’t! We have a Speaker who rode on the back of the NDC into office to pursue his own parochial agenda and nothing more. You trust them at your own peril,” Gyamfi rallied the NDC supporters.
Asiedu Nketia in a Citi TV interview appeared to suggest that Sammy Gyamfi would not have made the comments if he had an appreciation of how Parliament operates.
“There may be people who have never had anything to do with Parliament. The opinion they may share is different from those of us who have been in Parliament and know the role of the Speaker.
“You have the right to freely criticize state institutions and persons. I said those who have parliamentary experience may understand it better. He may not know how things run at the time he was talking so it’s not something we should be worried about.
Asiedu Nketia revealed that Bagbin was not moved by Sammy Gyamfi’s attack as he is aware of his inexperience with respect to parliamentary issues.
“Mr Speaker himself was not worried about it because if you have not experienced parliamentary service before, however intelligent you may be, there may be certain things you don’t know.
“People need to learn about the institution and how it works. Parliament has its own bodies and institutions that deal with matters of contempt of parliament and all that. You haven’t heard parliament cite Sammy Gyamfi of contempt. Sammy might not have known how Parliament works. Maybe that is why Parliament in its wisdom realized that some of the statements could have come out of the ignorance of the work and procedures in Parliament.”
