Bishop Lashes At Minority In Parliament

The Presiding Bishop of Gospel Light International Church has bashed the leadership of the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament, asking it to refrain from using unprintable words to describe the Speaker of Parliament.

Bishop Addae-Mensah, who appears to be unhappy with the conduct of the Minority in the august house, has called on the Minority leader Haruna Idrisu and the Asawase Member of Parliament (MP), Muntaka Mubarak and the other young minority MPs to show respect to the Speaker of the House.

In an interview, the man of God said he was amazed to hear Hon Haruna telling the Speaker that he (Haruna) would disrespect him, if he dared him.

“I have also on several occasions heard Hon Muntaka and some of his colleagues on radio using unprintable words in an attempt to accuse the Right Honorable Speaker of Parliament, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye of deliberately trying to frustrate and prevent the minority from contributing to issues on the floor of parliament.”

Bishop Addae-Mensah said: “Even in the wake of such disagreements, resorting to acidic and insulting words to humiliate the leader of such house is unparliamentarily and portrays insincerity and hypocrisy.”

“Even though the house has its own rules and procedures, there are avenues where grievances of such nature could be channeled for redress rather than rushing to the radio and TV with stinking language to describe a well respected personality like Prof Oquaye, he added.

“What kind of morals are these minority members showing the current generation of our children? For me, leadership of parliament must be with brains and not brawn. It is unacceptable in our culture to look at a man old enough to be your father and call him names,” he said.

“Hon Muntaka Mubarak likened the Speaker of Parliament’s actions in the house to that of Iddi Ammin or Mobutu and it’s an insult to himself and the party he belongs to. It tells the kind of training he had at home.”

“If someone looks him in the face and calls him a ‘fool’ or ‘stupid’ will he master the courage or the moral right to drag such a person to the privileges committee?” he quizzed.

According to the Presiding Bishop, leadership is a seed, what one sows is what he reaps.”

He said minority leaders like J.H Mensah, Paapa Owusu Ankomah and Kingsford Alban Bagbin in the same parliament performed creditably.

Bishop Addae-Mensah believes the performance of the particular minority group in parliament might be the worst in history.

“It appears since the emergence of the fourth Republic in our current democratic dispensation, I think this batch of Minority group in parliament is the most awful I have ever seen.

“Though I know there are a lot of descent and well respected men and women among the NDC MPs, there are also few young ones who are trying to become ‘hawks’ overnight with egoistic intent of wanting to gain popularity.”

Meanwhile, Bishop Addae-Mensah has also called on Nana Obiri- Boahen to honourably resign his post owing to the unguided comments he made about his own party.

Source: Daily Guide