Speaker, Chief Justice excluded from siren privileges in new Traffic Law

Parliament of Ghana has today excluded the Office of the Speaker and the Chief from the list of high-ranking Ghanaian public officials permitted to install a siren in their official vehicles and use a motorcade.

The L.I. was previously withdrawn as a public backlash over the proposal to grant Members of Parliament (MPs) similar privileges.

This was championed by the former Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu after a new road traffic Legislative Instrument (L.I.) was laid before Parliament.

Highlighting the issue, he said, “Without personalising it, it is not Alban Sumana Bagbin. It is the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament and he is not entitled to a motorcade or a police siren.? In my view Mr Speaker, it is wrong for the number three to be out of this privilege.”

According to him, “The Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana is also out of the Motor Traffic Regulation and not entitled to it. Mr Speaker, you can keep a minister and Member of Parliament but this republic has four important personalities; the president, the vice president, the speaker and the chief justice.”

On his part, the Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin expressed concern over the exclusion, stressing that it could hinder MPs in carrying out their duties to the people of Ghana.

Speaking on the floor of parliament, he said, “Politicians are always in a rush to save their heads when there is a crisis but sometimes we can have a collective fall. We know the challenges we face coming from home and going to our constituencies. It is not that a Member of Parliament, by virtue of having a siren, will use it every day.”

The Majority Leader further noted that “We belittle ourselves. You are a politician and you cannot take public bashing and go and explain to the public? Even you have MPs criticising Article 71 benefits that they have benefitted from and we hear them on radio and they continue to benefit? We have to take our democracy a little more seriously.”

Against this backdrop, the Speaker, Alban Bagbin  appealed to the Parliamentarians to be assertive and defend their positions whenever necessary.

“Today, when you are talking about a major democracy and spineless Parliament, leadership matters. You must be prepared to take responsibility and defend your positions. If the people knew like you, they will not elect you to lead them, and so they expect you to lead them and be able to persuade them that you are doing so in their interest,” he said.

He concluded, “There are only two people elected on December 7 every election year and they are the president and the MP and the two of you are to lead the people to make their condition better.”

By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme