Minority Chief Whip, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka is incensed by the prevailing posture of the Speaker of Parliament, likening his behaviour in the house, more or less, to dictators such as Mobutu See Seko of DR Congo and Idi Amin of Uganda.
Muntaka who has previously complained about how Prof. Mike Oquaye is running affairs in Parliament told Media General’s Mercydarlyn Lokko the behaviour of the Speaker is now “unbecoming”.
His comments come on the heels of the passage of the controversial Legal Profession (Professional and Post-Call Law Course) Regulations, 2018 on Friday following a voice vote in Parliament.
The Legislative Instrument after 21 days will give legal backing to the contentious law school entrance examination.
A former Deputy Attorney General, Dr Dominic Ayine had argued that the LI was unconstitutional and urged the house to reject it.
During the debate on the LI, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak said the house would be engaging in an illegality if it is approved.
After opposing views have been expressed, Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, put the question for the approval or rejection of the LI and ruled that the ayes had won.
The Minority Chief Whip attempted to challenge the ruling of the Speaker but was ignored after he together with some Minority MPs stood on their feet for more than 10 minutes.
Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka, later in an interview expressed disappointment in the Speaker’s ruling saying his conduct is a threat to the country’s democracy.
“They way he is behaving, I think that all of us, all of us need to be very concerned and very worried about the way Speaker is conducting himself because it is too much unbecoming of [him],” he pointed out.
Muntaka wondered “[Prof. Oquaye] who has written so many books on theory and now he has the opportunity to turn his theory into practical and he is completely messing up.
“I doubt if Mobutu or Idi Amin would be behaving the way he is doing”.
Meanwhile, US-based Ghanaian professor, Stephen Kweku Asare, who filed a suit at Ghana’s Supreme Court asking for nullification of the use of interviewing and entrance examination as the basis of admission into the Ghana School of Law and won, told 3FM News he was disappointed in the way Parliament conducted itself on the LI.
“It ended so poorly,” he observed, “such an important issue should not be done using a voice vote”.
“Seven members stood trying to catch the attention of the house but the Speaker willfully neglected them. I am very, very disappointed in him,” he said, serving notice that he would explore other avenues to get the issue of entrance exams addressed.
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