Speaker Reprimands Bagbin

The Speaker of Parliament Doe Adjaho welcomed the new Majority Leader Alban Bagbin to work on Wednesday in a rather unusual way. The Nadoli Kaleo MP, Alban Bagbin, was reminded by the Speaker that it is not good to burn bridges, apparently referring him to the corruption allegations he had made against Members of Parliament in July. �When we are members of Parliament and we go out as ministers, we should preserve this parliament so that parliament will be there for us when we come back and take the position,� he advised. Mr. Bagbin had alleged that some MPs take bribes to articulate the views of some individuals and organisations on the floor of Parliament. He had claimed that evidence to that effect existed and added that the practice had persisted because of the lack of laid-down rules and ethics on lobbying in the country. Following intense public pressure, the leadership of Parliament initiated a probe into the Nadoli Kaleo MP�s allegations but MPs are yet to be told of the outcome of the investigation. At today�s sitting of Parliament, the Speaker in his �food for thought� message to Bagbin recounted an advice a former regional minister gave him as a young lawyer. �He told me that the former Chief Justice and President of this country, the late Edward Akufo-Addo told him once that when you are in government don�t destroy the bar because when you destroy it, when you are government, when you come back as a lawyer, the bar will not be there for you. This shows that when we are members of Parliament and we go out as ministers, we should preserve this parliament so that parliament will be there for us when we come back and take the position.� The latest development, according to the Director of African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs, Dr Rashid Dramani would mean that �Hon Bagbin will have some work to do in terms of building some bridges that might have been burnt. He has come out to explain his position and so on, but I think a lot of MPs have taken offence to those comments and as a leader he has a lot of things to do trying to build such bridges,� he said. Anti graft campaigner Vitus Azeem, who at the time called for a serious probe into the matter, in an interview on Eye Witness News on Wednesday, expressed shock at the developments in the House. �The surprising thing is that the majority agreed to make him their leader. If this person came out and said these things about parliament being corrupt and they were making a lot of comments about him and yet they agreed to make him their leader, it�s a bit confusing,� he lamented. �It�s a bit difficult to understand politicians,� he concluded. Alban Bagbin was officially sworn in on Wednesday to replace Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor who has been appointed as Minister for Defence.