The speaker of Ghana’s 8th Parliament, Right Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has paid a courtesy call on the King and Overlord of the Gonja Kingdom, Yagbonwura Bii-Kunuto Jewu Soale ( I ) at Damongo.
The visit by the speaker forms part of activities of Ghana’s Parliament House in the Northern zone to celebrate it’s thirty years of uninterrupted parliamentary democracy under the forth Republic.
He was led by the Savannah Regional Minister, Hon. Saeed Muhazu Jibriel and accompanied by some members of Parliament together with some staff of Parliament House and witnessed with a colorful durbar of chiefs and people of the Gonja Kingdom.
In an address read by the Registrar of the Gonja Traditional Council, Mr. Abutu Kapori on behalf of the King and Overlord of the Gonja Kingdom, Yagbonwura Bii-Kunuto Jewu Soale (I) said it was a special gratitude and elation to the Gonja Kingdom for the Speaker to have left other equally important national assignments and made it a choice to visit the Savannah Region to acquaint himself with the Gonja Kingdom.
The King, Yagbonwura Bii-Kunuto Jewu Soale (I) noted that, since the inception of the fourth Republic from 1993 to 2023, the Right Honorable Speaker has been an integral part of the country’s democracy and has contributed immensely to the development of democracy and for that matter lifting the image of Northern Ghana to the apex level as one of the longest serving Member of Parliament in the history of Ghana.
On the issue of LGBTQ+ which is pending before the Parliament of Ghana, the king stated the position of the Gonja Kingdom and indicated that it is an abomination and alien to the cultural practices and norms of the Gonja people for a man to marry a man and a woman to marry a woman and therefore appealing to the leadership of Ghana’s Parliament to be guided on that and never import such a worrying phenomenon into their fold.
He noted that, their ancestors will never forgive them should they sit aloof and allow such a decision to be taken by the law makers to affirm LGBTQ+, adding that he is certain that Ghana’s 8th Parliament of the fourth republic under the leadership of Mr. Alban Bagbin will disapproved unanimously LGBTQ+.
He also expressed his worry over the issue communal hunting which is currently happening in some parts of the Savannah Region where people travel from different regions into the Savannah Region for communal hunting.
He added that, as the King and Overlord of Gonja, he and his people can not sit aloof and allow such acts to continue and as such, he and his council have resolved to Ban communal hunting in the Savannah Region to protect the wildlife, their ancestral deities and the fragile ecological landscape of the Savannah Region.
He recommend that Ghana’s Parliament intensify the existing laws or enact a law to control communal hunting.
The king also stated that, there is currently an increase in the activities of social vices across the length and breadth of Ghana and therefore implored the leadership of Ghana’s Parliament and everyone to support bring those social vices to an end by collaborating effectively with all duty bearers who matter in the country.
He concluded by wishing Mr. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin and all Mp’s well as Parliament marks 30 years of the fourth republic and also reminded the Right Honorable Speaker to leave a mark in the Gonja Kingdom for his remembrance.
Addressing the Chiefs and people of the Gonja Kingdom, the Right Hon speaker of Parliament, Mr. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin urged residents of the Savannah Region to do politics with decency as that is the only way to forged ahead as a people.
He explained that Ghana is a democratic country and has seen 30 years of uninterrupted parliamentary democracy under the forth Republic which they celebrate as a people.
He added that in celebrating it, there is the need for them to see where they got things right and where they got it wrong so as to see where the challenges and rough edges are, so that they can together smoothen them.
According to Mr. Bagbin, they have to look further as a people to make sure that the vision of the country is clearer than it is now and also stated that there is the need to look at the country’s constitution and the many other things to see how they can improve on what they put together to develop faster than they are doing.
He further explained that the celebration of Parliaments 30 years will create the opportunity for all to understand things better especially when they are elected to the house.
He again stated that parliament have decided to start the celebration from the northern zone starting with the north and can not do anything without seeking for the permission and blessings of the overlords to have a public forum in Tamale as it is the chiefs who have made the northern zone a peaceful, hospitable and a green field for all of them to come home.
The speaker also stated that he is looking for the day that national governance will accept the true leaders of the people which includes the kings, the chiefs, the elders and mothers to be part of parliament and in the decision making processes to pass the necessary laws to improve upon the governance of the country.
He noted that chiefs are loosing interest now in their leadership and that is not good for democracy, adding that they have turn democracy now into options where the highest bidder is the one that wins and the one who doesn’t have looses even when they all know that the poor man is always wise.
Addressing the issue of LGBTQ+ which is pending before the Parliament of Ghana raised by the Yagbonwura, Mr. Bagbin reiterates his opposition to the practice of LGBTQI+ in Ghana, reaffirming the unanimous stand of Ghana’s Parliament against it.
He also assured that parliament will look into the issues of communal hunting in the country and take necessary steps to enact laws to address it.
Source: Padfm.com.gh/Kumatey Gorden/0243531604
