Majority Chief Whip Frank Annor Dompreh has announced what appears to be his insider information that the happenings in the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic may have already set in motion a military coup d’état.
According to the Nsawam -Adoagyir MP, “Where we are now in fact, look, if we members of Parliament do not advise ourselves, should something happen, all of us will be affected. And if you look at our history, anytime there has been this military intervention, Parliament stands dissolved first. So that has affected Parliament.”
According to him, “Parliament is not very strong. So we want to build Parliamentary democracy but because of military interventions it is not very strong” he said.
He made this known on Nsawam based FAWE FM where he also warned that “where we are heading towards, we the MPs are setting the stage for something like this [Military intervention] to happen. It is very sad”.
His nuanced statement appears to indicate that he may have some insider information of sorts, particularly being an MP for the ruling party which definitely receives security briefings.
His announcement is also coming amidst the latest military takeover in Burkina Faso, a trend of new military interventions that is rapidly sweeping through West Africa.
In less than one year, three West African countries: Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso have all experienced military interventions to oust its so-called democratic tyrants.
The 8th Parliament has been a hung one with the NPP Majority group often doing things that shake the foundation of Ghana’s democracy and thus eliciting rather unparliamentary responses from the Minority, including physical blows.
On January 6, 2021, when the 8th Parliament was voting for its new Speaker, an NPP MP, Carlos Ahenkorah, snatched ballot papers and chewed some in a bid to scuttle the election of the current Speaker, Alban Bagbin. This led to some Minority MPs landing hefty blows on his face to get him to regurgitate the papers in his mouth.
That same night, Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul ordered armed soldiers to enter the Chamber to quell the disturbances, contrary to the rules of parliament.
The NPP Majority has followed the undercut of Parliamentary democracy, forming a rogue parliament to overturn the rejection of the 2022 budget and bent the rules for a Deputy Speaker to vote, despite being the one presiding over the dubiously convened parliament that saw a reported impostor brought in by the NPP to impersonate Dome Kwabenya MP, Sara Adwoa Sarfo who was absent at the time.
Again, recently, amidst the debate of whether or not to introduce the widely condemned 1.75% e-levy on electronic transactions, the Ghanaian Parliament broke into a street another brawl, with MPs from both the NDC and the NPP physically dishing out blows.
Meanwhile, Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has vowed to tame the House, announcing upon the resumption of the House after the Christmas break that he is going to insist on strict adherence to proper conduct in the House