The Deputy Minority leader in Parliament, James Klutse Avedzi, has described former speaker of Parliament Mike Ocquaye as the worst speaker in history.
James Avedzi, speaking with Joy News in an interview Sunday, September 4th 2022, said Mike Ocquaye was heavily biased throughout his tenure as Speaker of the House.
According to him, Ocquaye essentially gagged the minority and did not allow them to be able to freely express themselves in debates on the house floor.
“This particular Parliament, I think that the numbers that we have is helping and the benefit is not coming to NDC, it is coming to the whole country. If you compare this current Parliament…the 8th Parliament and the 7th Parliament, you will see that the majority in the current Parliament is now allowing some debates to flow on the floor. They are allowing debate to flow on the floor,” he said.
“In the previous Parliament, because of their numbers, they will not even allow you to talk and under the Speakership of Mike Ocquaye…I one time said that he is the worst Speaker we have ever had because there is this saying that in our type of democracy, ‘minority must be given the power to speak and the majority have their way’. But this Speaker will not even allow the Minority to speak. But currently, we say anything that we want to say…nobody to prevent,” he added.
The Ketu North MP credited the new freedom the minority enjoys in the house to the hung nature of the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic and not because Alban Bagbin, the current speaker, was a former NDC MP.
“No that is not the case. Because of the numbers, the majority know that they have only a difference of one and most of the time their ministers don’t come to Parliament,” he added.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com
