‘Tribal War’ In NDC Over Next Speaker of Parliament

A tribal war has reared its head in the NDC over who becomes the Speaker of the next Parliament.
The internal strife pitched northern Ghana against the Volta Region.

While a section of the party leaders, mostly the influential northern group is rooting for the retention of Alban Bagbin, the Ewe group believes it is their time to occupy the seat.

The split is likely to create a major confusion within the party as President-elect John Dramani Mahama prepares to take office on January 7, 2025.

Ahead of the inauguration of the next President, Parliament will elect a Speaker before midnight of January 6.

Arguments
For the northern group, they believed that Bagbin has a wealth of experience that will be a major advantage for the party in the next Parliament.

Their contention is that, Bagbin has done a lot of work to disable the NPP in the last four years, for which reason he must be compensated for that. But, the Ewe group have kicked against two northerners occupying the President and Speaker positions.

It is the contention of the Ewes that having been faithful to the NDC even in the most difficult times, they deserve to occupy the top position of Speaker.

The coming days will be interesting as power brokers slug it out on the vexed matter.

Last election
In the early hours of January 7, 2021, Bagbin was elected Speaker of the 8th Parliament. The former NDC MP for Nadowli Kaleo, won a chaotic, closely contested secret ballot in the Chamber of Parliament against his predecessor, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye by polling 138 votes against the University Professor who garnered 136 while one Member-Elect failed to vote.

The former Nadowli Kaleo lawmaker who served both as the Minority Leader and the Majority Leader during his twenty eight years stint with the law-making body thus made history for being the first Speaker of Parliament who was not selected by the governing party.

The process leading to his election as the Speaker was characterized by complete pandemonium as some MPs put up unparliamentarily behaviour.