By Issah Olegor
The Minority Caucus in Parliament on Wednesday staged a dramatic walkout from the Chamber after accusing First Deputy Speaker Bernard Ahiafor of using the Standing Orders of Parliament to suppress parliamentary oversight and frustrate Minority Members from scrutinising government policies.
The protest was triggered during proceedings when the Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, appeared before Parliament to answer questions on the government’s proposed SIM re-registration exercise.
Tensions escalated after the First Deputy Speaker ruled that supplementary questions posed by some Minority Members contravened the Standing Orders and therefore could not be entertained.
The decision immediately drew strong objections from the Minority, which argued that the ruling denied Members the opportunity to seek clarification on an issue of significant national importance.
Addressing journalists after leading the walkout, Minority Leader Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin accused the First Deputy Speaker of consistently interpreting the rules of Parliament in a manner that weakens the House’s constitutional oversight responsibility and prevents opposition MPs, particularly first-time and backbench legislators, from effectively holding the Executive to account.
“We have observed that the First Deputy Speaker has a way of using the rules to stampede parliamentary oversight,” Mr. Afenyo-Markin stated.
According to him, the Minority has noticed a recurring pattern in which backbench MPs are prevented from asking legitimate supplementary questions whenever ministers appear before the House.
“You have all observed that he started an attack on our backbenches. Any time our backbenchers have the opportunity to be on their feet, he would use the rules to frustrate them,” the Minority Leader alleged.
Mr. Afenyo-Markin explained that the supplementary questions sought by the Minority were intended to obtain further clarification from the Communications Minister regarding the government’s planned SIM re-registration exercise, particularly its financial implications and implementation strategy.
He questioned why another nationwide SIM registration exercise was being proposed after Ghanaians had already undergone a previous registration exercise that involved significant public expenditure.
“They claim that people use unverifiable identities to register SIM cards. Our question is: at what cost? How many people were identified to have used stolen IDs?” he asked.
The Minority Leader argued that Parliament has a duty to establish how much taxpayers would be required to spend on the proposed exercise and whether the necessary procurement processes had been followed.
“It is in the interest of the Ghanaian public to know how much this policy is going to cost the nation. In any event, the previous registration came at a cost, so we need to know what procurement processes are being followed,” he stressed.
Mr. Afenyo-Markin further maintained that the Deputy Speaker had misapplied the Standing Orders, insisting that Rule 89(1) expressly allows Members of Parliament to ask supplementary questions based on answers already provided by a minister for purposes of clarification.
“This is a government policy, and Rule 89(1) allows you to anchor your supplementary question on an answer given by the Minister for clarification,” he argued.
According to the Minority, preventing Members from seeking such clarifications undermines Parliament’s constitutional role of scrutinising government policies and holding the Executive accountable.
The walkout, Mr. Afenyo-Markin explained, was intended solely as a symbolic protest against what the caucus described as the Deputy Speaker’s posture during proceedings rather than a boycott of parliamentary business.
“This is just our protest. We protested the posture of the First Deputy Speaker using the rules to frustrate us,” he said.
He was quick to clarify that the Minority remained committed to participating fully in Parliament’s work and would return to the Chamber immediately after registering its displeasure.
“We’re going back into the Chamber to deal with other business. We protested his posture on this very matter, and that is it,” he concluded.
The latest confrontation adds to growing tensions between the Majority and Minority over the conduct of parliamentary proceedings.
In recent weeks, the Minority has repeatedly accused the leadership of Parliament of limiting opportunities for opposition MPs to scrutinise government decisions, while the Majority has maintained that proceedings must strictly comply with the Standing Orders.
