Legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu has weighed in on the ongoing standoff between the Speaker of Parliament and the President regarding the anti-gay bill, emphasizing that it should not be perceived as tit-for-tat but rather as a matter of adhering to legal principles.
While acknowledging the appearance of a retaliatory motive, Kpebu asserts that both the President and the Speaker are basing their actions on legal grounds.
Speaking on the Key Points program on Accra-based TV3, Kpebu highlighted the positive impact of such confrontations on shaping democracy.
“I am largely in favour of the current situation, it is shaping our democracy well. From time to time you need a bit of confrontation…when you have a president that hardly listens to the populace you will need things like this to put him in checks. This is really good.”
“It is not a tit-for-tat…on the face of it you may think so but when you go deeper you will find out that both the Speaker and Akufo-Addo are talking law that when a matter is in court don’t do anything that will make the case a foolish case.
“In this case, the president is right, he has my support 130% when he says the case in is in court so he cannot sign,” Kpebu added.
He clarified that despite initial appearances, the standoff is not tit-for-tat as suggested by the Attorney-General, but rather a matter of upholding legal principles.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, recently announced that Parliament would not consider President Akufo-Addo’s ministerial nominees until after the Supreme Court concludes its hearing on the anti-gay bill.
This decision came in response to a letter from the President’s Secretary urging Parliament not to transmit the bill for assent due to pending legal actions.