When Sammy Gyamfi says the venerable J.H Mensah commanded respect from both side of the aisle, this is what he meant. J.H Mensah made a submission on the floor of Parliament as NPP’s Minority Leader. He’s incomparable to Alexander Afenyo Markin’s noise. Mind you, J. H. MENSAH led even... a fewer NPP Minority of 61 MPs as against NDC’s super majority of 133. Yet still, J. H. MENSAH did not have to throw unnecessary tantrums and yammer to be HEARD. Anyway, who saw General Mosquito in the chamber? Man has passed through it all. This day had John Mahama, Alban Bagbin, Akufo-Addo, Edward Doe Adjaho, etc. in the house floor.show more

The comparison sounds nice, but your analysis is far too shallow. J.H. Mensah was undoubtedly one of Ghana's most respected parliamentarians, but you cannot simply compare the number of MPs he led with today's Parliament and conclude that his style was superior because he was quieter. Parliamentary effectiveness is not measured by how loud or quiet a leader is. It is measured by the quality of argument, the ability to scrutinise government, mobilise the minority, shape public debate and, where necessary, confront the majority. And the political context matters. J.H. Mensah operated in a different parliamentary and political environment, with different rules, media dynamics, institutional conventions and political pressures. A Minority Leader today faces a very different political battlefield. You can admire J.H. Mensah's parliamentary stature without pretending that every forceful intervention by a contemporary Minority Leader is "noise". Sometimes opposition politics requires confrontation. If your argument is that Afenyo-Markin lacks J.H. Mensah’s intellectual stature, make that argument properly. But using J.H. Mensah's restraint as a yardstick for parliamentary effectiveness is an oversimplification. Great parliamentarians should be judged by the substance and impact of their interventions, not simply by the volume of their voices.

In all that you said, which of what you’ve put up there was J.H Mensah not doing? But I can tell you for free that, he was not evasive, noisy and theatrical. A leader does not take over the roughly tactics of backbenchers and polish them as his own tools. That is a descend from command to comic from the aisle. That 97-01 Parliament had some of the best brains in there like I’ve enumerated earlier. If noise was necessary or an add up to successful leadership in the house, then J.H Mensah had to opt for that strategy to succeed when he was the arrowhead of the NPP, the thorn that should decompose the flesh of Rawlings govt. Why? You recall NPP boycotted the 1992 parliamentary elections, so the 96 elections happened to be their first in the house. If you had to strategise through noise to make a leeway, then the freshers (NPP MPs) and their leaders had to deplore that path against the Rawlings regime to make a name or frustrate the governance and expose the numbers. It even makes more sense when you put it in a proper context that, it was the first time the Rawlings Government was facing a properly coordinated opposition for which reason, all forms of opposition should have been justified. But noise and loud confrontation was not the bargain. No one buys it for pittance. Afenyo has the precedence at his side but chooses to be him for all nobody knows of. Its despicable!

Senior, you still have not answered the point I made. You keep making a comparison of temperament and presenting it as a comparison of parliamentary effectiveness. In fact, just take your time and reflect on your own historical context. It weakens your argument. If J.H. Mensah could command respect without theatrics, that tells us something about J.H. Mensah’s temperament, intellect and parliamentary stature. It does not establish that confrontation itself is illegitimate, or that a different style of opposition cannot be effective. At the end of the day the real question everyone would ask is what has Afenyo-Markin accomplished through his interventions? Which arguments has he made? Which government decisions has he successfully scrutinised or frustrated? What issues has he forced onto the national agenda? Where has he effectively mobilised his Minority? Those are the things you should use to demonstrate that he falls short of J.H. Mensah but simply calling everything you dislike "noise" does not make it noise in all honesty. And there is an irony in your own description. You call J.H. Mensah the "thorn" in Rawlings’ flesh. But a thorn does not become a thorn merely because it speaks softly. It becomes a thorn because it is effective. The mere fact that J.H. Mensah was quiet, does not make Afenyo-Markin’s confrontational style ineffective and that's the only reason I said your comparison is shallow in my original comment.

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 Life… A hall full of ghosts

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 The brevity of life. Only few survives...

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 General Mosquito and big suite di3 no be today ooo 😄😁😁

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 You too! 😂🤣

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 Their furniture looks nicer than today’s

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 Are you sure?

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 So make Afenyo be like JH Mensah anaa?

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 If that will stop his disruption of vetting procedure, breaking of chairs and noisy confrontation, why not?

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 I watched this live on a Samsung flat TV. I remember very well, I was 2yo.

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 Wow! Glad to know this. Time has past tho

@Amoasikristofer @F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 The parliamentarians behaved maturely, unlike the fools and noisemakers we have as majority today

@Amoasikristofer @F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 And it was the Npp’s first time there

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 If a similar situation arises today and Afenyo makes this same argument, you will follow your party and attack his person.

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 Let him make that submission first. Sadly, what we have today is breaking of chairs, disruption of vetting proceedings, tantrums and tangos.

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 He makes a submission at the vetting and you call it “disruption”. JH Mensah’s submission on why Rawlings should be sworn in before would have been termed as a “disruption” as well. Rest!!

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 No! How do you define disruption? 😂🤷🏾‍♂. What happened at vetting was a noisy confrontation when the clerk was to administer the oath. If that was a submission, in your view, then I’m very sorry. This is surreal.

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 Do u know what this clearly means? It tells u that every good thing that has happened to Ghana since colonial days has originated from the NPP tradition. Again, at the time JH was vilified. Few years to come, ndc will quote Afenyo to make a point. So afenyo is doing ok

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 I watched this live. This was the time some of us would rush to listen to parliamentarians and politicians anywhere, anytime because they made politics fascinating and a passion to pursue.

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 You were privileged then

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 Lol

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 Hon Afenyo-Markin remains the ndc’s greatest nightmare. If your enemy or opponent is getting pissed about your conduct, just know that you are wining. The aim is to frustrate & make useless the ndc. Leader @AfenyoMarkin , don’t change pls. Ndc is crashing down 🤝

@F_Edzeamey @nyavorx @IdanBarnes @aristotledada @Hajjyass70 @imamissaharthur @HamdiaOfori @obiba_jk2 @p_attigah @LongLyf2 This is a vintage video. I remember this very well. Eii does it mean that I’m that old? 😳😜