Public Agenda (Accra)
Ebenezer Hanson
18 July 2008
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The Ghanaian body politic is mourning the demise of Rt. Hon Peter Ala Adjetey, the Speaker of the Third Parliament of the Fourth Republic Parliament, 2001-2004, whose sudden death occurred in the early hours of Tuesday at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
Many MPs in separate interviews with Public Agenda extolled the virtues of the late Speaker which deepened the country's democratic experiment and enabled Parliament to take its rightful position on the map of political power.
But the common strand in the copious "elegies" by many MPs that Public Agenda spoke to was a fact obviously unknown to the politically uninitiated: during Rt. Hon. Adjetey's tenure of office he worked assiduously to ensure that Parliament asserted itself as an independent arm of government.
"Before the NPP came to power, there was a general belief that Parliament was subservient to the executive and it was ex-President Jerry Rawlings who was opening Parliament but when Rt. Hon. Peter Adjetey took over he was opening Parliament and Parliament indeed asserted itself," , Hon. Joe Baidoe-Ansah, MP for Effia-Kwesimintim and Minister for Aviation recalls.
The opening of Parliament by the Speaker was a conspicuous departure of what transpired during the First and Second Parliaments of the Fourth Republic during which Parliament was opened by the President.
The novelty practice of Rt. Hon. Adjetey, which has been continued by Rt. Hon. Hon. Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, is in conformity with article 112(1) of the Constitution which provides that " A session of Parliament shall be held at such place within Ghana and shall commence at such time as the Speaker may, by constitutional instrument, appoint."
Hon. Baidoe-Ansah described him as very "principled person, a great man and a very good lawyer, who brought his legal brains to bear on whatever he did."
The Minority Leader, Hon. Alban S.K. Bagbin, characterized the Rt. Hon. Adjetey as "principled and spoke his mind irrespective of the consequences". He recounted that he was part of a delegation which included the Rt. Hon Adjetey that attended a conference of world Inter Parliamentary Union. "At that conference, the late Speaker initially made some comments which other participants misconstrued and felt that he was being arrogant. But when he had his chance to deliver a speech in which he expatiated on the issues he had earlier raised, the same participants became convinced that far from being arrogant, Rt. Hon. Adjetey was a gem and highly intelligent."
Rt. Hon Adjetey's rulings in Parliament, according to Hon. Bagbin, were without question as he ensured fairness and as result the Majority in Parliament at a point felt he was "too sympathetic towards the Minority."
Hon. Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, MP for Effiduase, says he remembers Rt. Hon. Adjetey for his forthrightness, passion for truth and fairness. He recalled that when he was the Treasurer of the NPP he worked closely with Rt. Hon. Adjetey who was then the Chairman of the NPP "to mobilize resources for the party at a time when it was difficult to stand up and be countered for the NPP. It was with a sense of great loss I received the news."
Hon. Alhaji Abukari Sumani, MP for Tamale, has fond memories of the late Speaker. To him Speaker Adjetey was "a disciplined, dedicated and excellent lawyer who properly researched his cases before going to court. He contributed significantly to the justice system and did his best to make Parliament as independent as possible."
Hon Kwabena Adusah Okerchiri, MP for Nkawkaw, says of the Speaker, "he was very meticulous, a perfectionist and very fastidious, you cannot easily please him. I'm using fastidious in the positive sense".
The Rt. Hon. Peter Ala Adjetey died on Tuesday 15 July at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital aged 76 after a short illness. He left behind a wife, Johanna Dede and six children.
Peter Ala Adjetey, born 11 August 1931, was the second Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana in the Fourth Republic.
A prominent son of La in Accra, Peter Ala Adjetey obtained his basic education at St. Paul's School at La and the Accra Bishop Boys' School. His secondary education was at Accra Academy from where he proceeded to the University College of the Gold Coast (now the University of Ghana) and obtained the University of London intermediate Bachelor of Arts degree in 1954. He then proceeded to the United Kingdom, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from University of Nottingham in 1958 and was called to bar at Middle Temple in London in 1959.
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