Alban Bagbin away in Dubai for medical review
Apologise to Ghanaians, Asiedu Nketia urged
Following the call on minority members of Parliament to resort to force in the event that their colleagues on the other side decide to “bend the rules” to get the controversial Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) passed, a political science lecturer has advised that parliament disassociates itself from such comments.
The former Head of the History and Political Science Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Samuel Adu Gyamfi, rather urged that parliament should boldly condemn the statements made by the NDC’s General Secretary and distance itself from the comments, reports asaaseradio.com.
Asiedu Nketia had said, “So long as impunity will not stop, resistance has been imposed on us as a duty,” while addressing the party’s youth wing in the Ashanti Region recently.
He also urged the NDC MPs to reject any attempts by especially Joseph Osei-Owusu, the MP for Bekwai, and First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, to cast a vote while presiding over the House.
This is because the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, is away from the country for a medical review in Dubai.
“Don’t hesitate to slap him to keep him on track,” Asiedu Nketia said.
But Dr. Adu-Gyamfi disagrees, adding that while there have been unavoidable problems linked with this parliament, it is not appropriate for anyone to be advancing calls for further mayhem.
“Even though in recent times the House has degenerated into something else, the House and its norm really, will not support any such act that seems to push for social dissonance, a conflict that is to engineer processes that will halt the proceedings and activities of the House.
“…So, Parliament must vehemently - both the Majority and Minority should come out to dissociate themselves from this kind of commentary which comes from Asiedu Nketia,” he said.
He explained that language and communication are important and there is the need for the NDC General Secretary to be temperate in his future utterances in such matters.
“In diplomacy, it is always important that language, communication, political communication for that matter is very critical. In as much as we can use a pen to increase conflict, from time to time, men have used miscommunication to also cause situations to degenerate,” he said.
He then urged Asiedu Nketia to withdraw his comments and render an unqualified apology to the people of Ghana.
Johnson Asiedu Nketiah is NDC General Secretary