The Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, has expressed discontentment over utterances made by the Majority Leader, Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu regarding the Minority in Parliament.
According to the Asawase MP, the fact that the two sides are not in agreement on certain positions does not give the Suame MP the right to assert that they have been brainwashed, urging him to be circumspect in his utterances.
His comments come after Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu told the host of The Probe on Joy News on Sunday, 4t May, 2021, that some recent conducts by the Minority indicate that some NDC legislators have been brainwashed and not informed on some Parliamentary practices.
According to the Suame MP, although he seeks to work with the Minority due to the numbers of each Caucus in the House, their actions appear to be that of an “obstructionist opposition party.”
However, reacting to this, the Asawase legislator who spoke to Kumasi based Luv FM described the Majority Leaders comments as unfortunate.
“Me disagreeing with him, doesn’t give him the right to say that, I have been brainwashed, that is my understanding and I’m pursuing it and I’m also using the same rules. For him to say that people have been brainwashed, I think that that’s very unfortunate.”
He continued that such utterances do not foster consensus building because as things stand, the house is challenged because of the nature of the 8th Parliament, as regards numbers of each side.
“It doesn’t also help in the consensus building. Because you see, the kind of Parliament that we have today, you have people on both sides-the Majority and the Minority who just think that, look, let us have a lock horn at every point in time.”
According to the Asawase MP since the Suame MP needs the support of the opposition in Parliament to ensure a smooth operation of the Executive, he must not be heard saying certain things that undermine the intelligence of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentarians.
“You may have your view, but if it were me, I wouldn’t say that in the public. I may have it as a view sitting in Parliament but because I am Majority Leader who wants government business to run in the House, I will not be the one saying this,” Mr Muntaka said.
