When parliament convened on Wednesday, July 5, 2023, to debate the anti-gay bill presented to it, it came with its dynamics in terms of the arguments that were made on the floor of the Chamber.
As varied as they were, there was one underlying point; the majority of the Members of Parliament in this 8th Parliament of Ghana were in support of the bill, and by the close of the day, it had been adopted by the House.
But there was one other moment during the debate that perhaps competed with the most important agenda of the day: the unhealthy verbal fight between the Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, and the Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed.
And it all started because of something the Tamale Central MP did, which would not be his first time on the floor of parliament.
During the submission of Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, the MP for South Dayi, which had been followed by the earlier submission of Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Murtala Mohammed shouted something that interrupted the smooth flow of his colleague MP, who had the floor.
’You are a promoter of LGBTQ’
By the procedures in parliament, whoever is not speaking into the microphone is not placed on record, but when the Tamale Central MP, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, spoke those words, “You are a promoter of LGBTQ; you are a promoter,” it was too loud and obvious to be overlooked.
Instantaneously, the Second Speaker of Parliament, Andrew Asiamah, who was in the seat at the time, called on the MP to withdraw his statements.
But the Tamale Central MP would not.
In fact, in his defence, there was nothing to apologise for because, technically (because he did not speak through the microphone), he said nothing to merit such an action.
Even after repeated prompts from the Speaker, even to the extent that he appealed to the MP’s emotions with the words that they are friends and so he (Murtala) should withdraw what he said just for him, it was still not convincing enough.
"Mr. Speaker, if the Hansard comes and whatever you said I said is in it... Mr. Speaker, if you think I said something, the honorable minister also said something. What did she say? She said I am mad," he explained.
And for Ursula, who was visibly livid about what had happened, and had wrongly heard her colleague on the other side of the House, she would have none of it, spewing all the salvos she could come up with in response.
Thinking she heard the MP describe her as an LGBTQ practitioner, Murtala Mohammed said was to describe her as a promoter.
The matter was settled eventually, and the proceedings of the day went on as scheduled, but it was not the only instance, at least in recent times, that the Speaker of Parliament (whoever is in the seat) has had cause to draw the attention of Murtala to the fact that something he said on the floor was loud enough to match someone directly speaking into the microphone.
See the video of that moment below:
Murtala’s comment to Jean Mensa that Speaker asked him to withdraw
On Tuesday, February 28, 2023, when the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa; the Chief Executive Officer of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof. Ken Attafuah; and the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, appeared before parliament, drama unfolded because of comments by Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed.
As the EC boss was making her point on the need to make the Ghana Card, the only document needed for the registration, the Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, could be heard describing her remarks as shameful.
This infuriated member of the Majority Caucus, who were up in arms, demanding that the MP withdraws his comments. This caused some commotion in the House for a minute.
The Minister for Defence and MP for Bimbilla, Dominic Nitiwul, who was being chastised by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, for being out of order could be heard saying: “Mr Speaker, I’m protesting. You cannot invite somebody into your house and insult the person. Mr Speaker, why? He is misbehaving too much.”
Bagbin then directed his anger at Murtala and told him that his comments were unparliamentary.
“Honourable Murtala Muhammed, it has long been ruled in this House that the use of the word shame is unparliamentary… the guests we have are here to answer to an invitation by this House. The best we can do is to listen to them.
“Again, Honourable Murtala Muhammed, I call on you to withdraw the shame, shame,” Bagbin said.
Murtala Muhammed, before withdrawing his comment, argued that his comments were not made through the microphone and thus cannot be recorded as official.
But Bagbin insisted that during meetings of the committees, every comment made is recorded even if it is not made through a microphone.
The action of the Speaker drew him some applause from members of the Majority Caucus.
Watch the video of that incident below:
You can also watch this episode of People & Places here:
Watch the latest episode of Everyday People on GhanaWeb TV below:
Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed is the MP for Tamale Central
