Speaker Bagbin’s Heavy Hand

The image of the Marshal of Parliament being ordered to physically remove the Member of Parliament for Damongo, Samuel Abu Jinapor, is one that diminishes the dignity of the House and raises serious questions about the temperament of its presiding officer. The events that unfolded in the Chamber of Parliament on Tuesday, leave much to be desired.

Speaker Alban Bagbin’s frustration with the Damongo MP’s allegations regarding the sale of diplomatic passports is understandable. The claim that Ghana’s diplomatic and service passports are being flogged for between GH¢50,000 and $30,000 to unqualified individuals is a grave one, and the Speaker was right to demand that it be properly substantiated before the Floor is used as a platform for unverified claims.

However, the remedy the Speaker chose was disproportionate and needlessly inflammatory. Speaker Bagbin himself offered an alternative that the statement be expunged from the record if the MP does not withdraw yet he opted instead for the dramatic and humiliating route of ordering the Marshal to eject the MP. When Samuel Jinapor, in compliance with the Speaker’s directive, sought to withdraw the allegation while clarifying what precisely he was withdrawing, the Speaker’s patience snapped entirely. The MP was ordered out, and the entire Minority Caucus followed in solidarity.

This is not the first time the Speaker has clashed with the Minority, but the sight of the Marshal physically removing an elected representative or attempting to is a new low. It suggests a presiding officer who is not merely firm, but intemperate. Parliament is a deliberative assembly, not a courtroom where contempt is punished by ejection. The Speaker’s role is to facilitate debate, not to shut it down with the heavy hand of authority.

Speaker Bagbin had a perfectly reasonable option: expunge the statement, allow the MP to withdraw it, and then direct that the matter be properly investigated through the appropriate committee. Instead, he chose a course of action that has now handed the Minority a political gift which is a narrative of victimhood and executive overreach while diverting attention from the substantive issue of whether diplomatic passports are being abused.

The Speaker’s own explanation, that he would give the MP an opportunity to raise the matter once facts were gathered, is sensible. But that sensible position was undermined by the theatrical and unnecessary ejection. The Minority’s mass walkout was predictable, and it has now turned a procedural dispute into a full-blown confrontation.

We call on Speaker Bagbin to exercise cool heads. He could have asked for the statement to be expunged, as he himself had suggested. He could have allowed the MP to withdraw the allegation and then referred the matter to the Foreign Affairs Committee for investigation. Instead, he chose to walk the MP out, a decision that has inflamed tempers, wasted parliamentary time, and damaged the institution he leads.

The controversy over diplomatic passports is serious. It deserves a serious response, not a spectacle. The Speaker should reflect on whether his actions have advanced the cause of accountability or merely hardened the political lines. Parliament’s credibility depends on its ability to handle sensitive allegations with composure and fairness. Yesterday, it displayed neither.

We urge the Speaker to reconsider his approach and to engage the Minority leadership constructively. The Marshal’s services should be reserved for maintaining order, not for enforcing the Speaker’s pique., not for enforcing the Speaker’s pique.