
I was in Room 88 on the 8th floor of the Annex block at Republic Hall about a decade and a half ago when the sons of Father John and children of Aboagyewaa clashed right at the back of the Hall heading towards Conti.
This is a scene I observed through my window which I doubt could be erased from my memory anytime soon. I’m referring to a clash between University Hall and Unity Hall, popularly known as Conti and Katanga at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi. Let’s keep that in mind.
I’ve always had issues with people who precede the names of Members of Parliament and occupants of other government positions such as Ministers, MMDCEs and others with the title, “Honourable”. I stand to be corrected but what I have learnt suggests that the title is for the office and not the person.
So, instead of saying for instance, Hon. Felix Anim-Appau, MP for Ghana constituency, the right thing is to say is Felix Anim-Appau, Hon. MP for Ghana constituency. But some have argued that since they’re occupying the offices, there is nothing wrong with attaching the title to their names.
Whatever be the case, whether Hon. MP or Hon ‘Koominini’, at the end of the day, it is expected of occupants of the offices to behave in a manner that reflects the title accorded them.
Pupils misbehave in basic schools and are punished. Students likewise get penalised in secondary and tertiary institutions when they go wayward. These sanctions are put in place to get these culprits reformed to become better leaders in the future. But if we have leaders in positions as high as Members of Parliament, a key pillar of our democracy, misbehaving in the House of Legislature, then we need to question the direction of our society.
With reference to events that unfolded in the 8th Parliament on the day of the election of the Speaker, the approval of budgets, and the Covid-19 levy amongst others, many would have wished that this Parliament would prioritise civility in their dealings in order not to take our democracy back to the abyss.
They did misbehave in the glare of the public forgetting they were on live TV. It appears these MPs have developed the penchant of showing their other sides whenever they are on live television. What happened to the culprits? Or the Privileges Committee dealt with them and it ended there? Why was the public denied of the sanctions meted out to these MPs when their deeds were done in the eye of the public? I believe there should have been names, published to the public and punished in the known of every citizen, so that whoever climbs to such a position would know how to conduct themselves.
There have been instances where rivalry between the Commonwealth and Mensah Sarbah Halls at the University of Ghana have resulted in similar acts like the one in KNUST and culprits were penalised. These are the times you see some social commentators and politicians commenting about such behaviours and calling on these “future leaders” to exhibit civility in their encounters. We know those found culpable are punished.
In the matter of the Kantanga and Conti clash that I observed through my balcony, Conti Odikro (the traditional priest) was shielded by his entourage when the ‘Katangees’ were flying their missiles. In the end, one student lost his eye. A treaty was signed later, and a venue from Independence Hall towards Republic Hall where that fight ensued was named ‘Peace Junction.’
This continued with several other incidents happening which I can’t list here. Perpetrators were punished, some got rusticated and those captured during such disturbances were made to pay for the cost of the damages caused to properties.
Eventually, this did not end the fracas between residents of these two Halls, and to cut a long story short, Prof. Kwasi Obiri Danso, who later became Vice Chancellor, converted the two Halls of residence from an all-male to mixed halls.
Not too long ago, some of these residents rampaged the campus and destroyed properties and were made to pay for the cost. The entire university was shut down for some period before it was reopened. An innocent student who was busily studying in his/her room was equally affected by the decision taken by the school authorities over something they knew nothing about. And of course, the perpetrators suffered the most.
But, what ensued on the night of Thursday, January 30, 2025, at the Appointments Committee of Parliament’s sitting suggests some of the MPs Ghanaians voted for do not deserve to be in the House because their actions were so crap that some headmasters would outrightly dismiss them if they were senior high school students and had put up such behaviours in school.
With video evidence of someone who is supposed to be an Honourable Member of Parliament, urging his colleagues to disrupt a vetting process by telling them to dismantle the tables which they actually did and destroyed some microphones in addition, leaves much to be desired.
If I meet Mahama Ayariga, the Bawku Central MP and Majority Leader, and call him Honourable, and Patrick Yaw Boamah, the Okaikwei Central legislator, and give him the same respect, I don’t think Alexander Afenyo-Markin, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, Jerry Ahmed Shaib and Alhassan Sulemana Tampuli, and a host of other lawmakers, would expect me to accord them same respect.
Even though Afenyo-Markin did not personally lift a table or break a microphone during the barbaric scenes we witnessed in Parliament on Thursday, he was the leader and his actions gingered his members to carry on with their deeds.
Moreover, he didn’t make any attempt to stop them. Our elders did not say “Opanin a ɔtena fie ma mmɔfra we nanka no, sɛ yɛreká nankawefoɔ a, ɔka ho” to wit ‘an elder who watches on for children to eat a python is counted amongst python eaters’ for nothing.
And in fact, Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Bernard Ahiafor, told Alfred Ocansey on TV3 yesterday, Monday, February 03, 2025, that the disturbances that marred the process was instigated by Afenyo-Markin, who was reminding the younger MPs of the purpose for which he added them on the Committee. So in this case, Afenyo-Markin did not just watch the young ones eat the python but he roasted it, added salt and served it to them with liquor.
Let nobody get me wrong that I’m probably lauding Mahama Ayariga and Yaw Boamah because they are merely calm in nature. It is about their composure and intervention in the midst of the chaos. I am not a calm person myself and people close to me know I’ll not forgive you if you misbehave within my circles. But the fact that you disagree on something does not mean you should destroy state assets paid for by the taxpayer.
I believe there is no single member of the Minority caucus that would have tolerated a parent for disagreeing with him/her if they were a headmaster, principal or Vice Chancellor of any school and punished their wards for engaging in a similar act.
What is mind boggling is a statement from the Minority expressing its disappointment with the Speaker for suspending three of their members and equally garnering the guts to call on the Majority to change their Chief Whip, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, in a press conference it organised prior to the release of the statement. Is it because he didn’t stand quietly to watch your uncouth colleagues destroy more state properties on live TV?
In December 2021, I published an article titled: ‘Exempting the culprit under the jacket of neutrality; an incentive for stupidity to thrive‘ where I highlighted how society usually labels a group instead of calling out individuals who misbehave out of the lot.
I know decisions that are taken such as suspensions and footing of bills for damaged properties during rampages are usually taken against the culprits of the deeds, but long term decisions that come out from such experiences tend to affect the entire group.
For instance, although only a few students engaged in the commotion in KNUST, the entire Halls (Conti and Katanga) were converted to mixed Halls making them lose that identity as an all-male Halls. Africa Hall, which was an all-female hall was also affected and it has now become a mixed hall. As I have indicated earlier, when the school was shut down, it affected those tens of thousands of students who knew nothing about the incident.
In the case of the recent development in Parliament, yes, there have been previous incidents involving almost the entire House as mentioned earlier, in which case it wasn’t even every member that was involved in the fight, likewise the commotion at the Appointments Committee which involved just a handful of MPs, in the end, the entire Committee is being tagged, with South Dayi MP, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, also suspended for an act he was clearly against.
Just as leadership has shown over the years that when students commit such atrocities, they are suspended before investigations take place –the recent Accra Academy case in perspective, –made to pay for the cost of the damages and are made to sign a bond of good behaviour, and depending on the level of institution, some are made to bring their parents to do so, it is the same way the suspension of the MPs is a good move by the Speaker.
Although some seasoned lawyers, including my very revered and renowned practitioner, Martin Kpebu, have condemned the decision and called on the affected MPs to sue the Speaker for taking an action before conducting an investigation, I believe the deeds of the MPs are not different from what causes students’ rustication from schools whilst investigations take place.
And with the Minority caucus who are saying the Speaker lacks the locus to suspend members, I want to know if the same Speaker wields the authority to call the Marshals of Parliament to walk an MP out of the chamber if he/she misbehaves.
In my conclusion, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, “honourable means honest and fair, or deserving of respect and praise. It can also be used as a title for certain government officials and people of high social rank.”
Dear Member of Parliament, are your actions deserving of “respect and praise”?
The writer, Felix Anim-Appau, works with the online unit at Media General. The views expressed in this piece are his personal opinions and do not reflect, in any form or shape, those of The Media General Group, where he works. His email address is [email protected], @platofintegrity on X.
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