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The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has sworn in the newly elected Members of Parliament (MPs) for the Akwatia and Tamale Central constituencies.
At the commencement of the Third Meeting of the First Session of the Ninth Parliament on Tuesday, the Speaker administered the Oaths of Office and Allegiance to Bernard Bediako Baidoo of Akwatia and Professor Alidu Seidu of Tamale Central.
The two newly elected MPs won by-elections conducted by the Electoral Commission in September this year, following the passing of their predecessors.
In Akwatia, Mr Baidoo, a 40-year-old lawyer, polled 18,199 votes to succeed the late Ernest Yaw Kumi, the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for the area, who died in July this year.
In Tamale Central, Professor Seidu, a University of Ghana lecturer and former Head of the Department of Political Science, was elected unopposed. He succeeds the late Dr Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, the former National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for the constituency, who died in a military helicopter crash in August.
Addressing the House after swearing in the two MPs, Mr Bagbin welcomed them to Parliament but cautioned that he would hold them to the oaths they had taken.
He remarked humorously that should they fail to discharge their duties, he would first hand them “the hoe and the cutlass.”
“You do not go to your farm without the hoe or the cutlass; so, on a daily basis, I observe members when they walk in,” he said.
Mr Bagbin noted that even after 33 years in Parliament, he still referred daily to the Constitution and the Standing Orders.
Handing copies of the Constitution and the Standing Orders to the new MPs, the Speaker said: “Please, if you really want to perform your duties well, you have to keep them close — even sleep with them.
“There is a lot to learn. Whether you are a professor or a farmer, you have come to a new school, and that school starts from crèche — and you are starting from crèche today,” he said.
He advised them not to assume their prior knowledge or professional experience meant they already understood parliamentary work.
“You do not know it, and you have to start learning, please,” he said, urging them not to be discouraged by the attitudes of more experienced colleagues.
“Do not be deterred or intimidated; you can perform better than them. But at least, out of respect, give reverence to them because they were here before you,” he added.
Later, the Speaker informed members that with the swearing-in of the two new MPs, the House now had its full complement of 276 members.
“Please, the number is no longer 275; we now have 276,” he said, adding that each time the number of MPs increased, adequate space must be created to accommodate them.
“So please, it is a plea that before this number increases further, we must, as a country, start looking for a proper place; if not, the integrity of this structure is being undermined,” Mr Bagbin cautioned.
