Member of Parliament representing the South Dayi constituency in the Volta Region Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor insist the Speaker of Parliament is the second most powerful person in the country.
According to him, the country through their representatives in Parliament voted for the Speaker and therefore constitutionally, he has more powers than the Vice President of the country.
The Lawmaker who is a Lawyer by profession indicated that the Vice President is not a voted individual and his existence in the position is subject to the President who can sack him at any time if he feels he cannot work with him anymore.
“I think he’s number two because you see, in the scheme of things we never voted for the Vice President so he’s subservient to the President…” On whether the Speaker of Parliament was also voted for he said ” that’s a very serious election. The procedure for doing that is constitutionally determined so that was a public election.
He continued “Vice President is attached to the President and can decide tomorrow to dismiss him. So Speaker is indeed number 2. In fact our attention was drawn to that by a Supreme Court Judge”.
Background
Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has disclosed that a Justice of the Supreme Court has explained why he is the second most powerful person in Ghana only behind the President of the Republic.
According to him, the unnamed Justice explained to a gathering that included Members of Parliament that to the extent that the governance structure comprised the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary in that order, their respective leaders must be ranked the same.
“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 said of the known hierarchy.
Then continued: “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.
‘We never voted for Bawumia, Bagbin is second most powerful after Akufo-Addo’ – MP for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor. #JoyNews pic.twitter.com/KZJfZqLueQ
— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) November 25, 2021
