Bagbin wont appoint Enemies …Asiedu Nketia Tells Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, would continue to appoint his advisors and key team from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the party he belongs, and there is nothing unacceptable or unlawful about that, the party’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia has said.

Asiedu Nketia was responding to recent continuous grumblings from Majority Leader in Parliament Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, that Alban Bagbin was turning Parliament into an NDC enclave by appointing persons from that party as his advisors and spokespersons and also appointing the General Secretary of the same party to the Parliamentary Service Board.

The NDC General Secretary said disagreed: “Who said that Parliament is run on the fears of Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu? Parliament is run according to the law. He should be quoting and telling us maybe the Constitution is against this and maybe the Standing Orders is against that. But what he is saying, he is not communicating to anybody. He is just expressing his fears but unfortunately, Parliament is not run on the basis of the fears of Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu. It is run on laws.”

Asiedu Nketia, in an interview on JoyNews’ The Probe on Sunday, monitored by The Thunder newspaper continued: “What was Parliament before Bagbin came? Was it an enclave of the NPP? The Speaker was NPP, the former Members of Parliament who should serve on the Parliamentary Board were from the NPP leadership and I don’t want to believe that the workers and the advisors at that time were from the CPP. So if they were all NPP at that time and now you have another Speaker, I am wondering whether Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was expecting Bagbin to appoint his opponents to advise him.

You are talking about advisors. People chose their advisors. Do you know the Council of State is there to advise the President?  Mention one person in the current Council of State who was nominated from the NDC. The president was choosing his advisors and he decided to choose NPP people.

“So I am worried about people who cannot use parity of reasoning. When something suits them, they argue that this paper is white and the next day when it does not suit them, they argue that the same paper is black or blue. That is not the way to build credibility”.

ENEMIES

Asiedu NKetia explained why Bagbin would not appoint his enemies as advisors: “I did not expect Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu who was all over the place when we were accusing the President of nepotism in his appointments and so on Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was all over the place saying that did we expect the President to appoint his enemies as Ministers. So what has changed? If you do not expect Nana Akufo-Addo to appoint his enemies as ministers and advisors, why do you want Bagbin to appoint his opponents as advisors”?

ASIEDU QUALIFIES

The NDC Chief Scribe also explained why he has what it takes to be on the Parliamentary Service Board: “But the good thing I like about the interview was that at least he recognizes by level of intelligence, he recognizes my level of experience because I was in Parliament four years before he came and I did 12 years in Parliament.

“People who have done eight years in Parliament have served on the Parliamentary Service Board. I have been in Parliament for 12 years.  I have been in the front bench in government Parliament, back bench in government in Parliament, front bench in opposition in Parliament, back bench in opposition in Parliament and I have chaired several Parliamentary meetings and I have chaired Boards of state institutions so I don’t know what else they expect but the good thing is that he came to clear the air about some orchestrations they were cooking

“If you like to know, the arguments between Bagbin and Kyei-Mensah, these were some of the underlying currents that led to that argument. I am happy Bagbin put his feet down and I am happy to accept the appointment because I want Speaker Bagbin to succeed.”