Ghana’s Parliament is the biggest ‘comedy’ club I have ever come across – Fritz Baffour

Even though Parliamentarians do serious work in the august house of legislature, Fritz Baffour, a former member of the house and a journalist, has described the legislative arm of government as the biggest ‘comedy’ club he has ever come across.

The former stand-up comedian said he would have loved to combine his parliamentary work with his act “because parliament is the biggest comedy club he has ever come across.”

Explaining he does not wish to belittle the ‘serious’ work of parliamentarians, Fritz Baffour noted that an observer of human behaviour or someone who wants to see the different behavioural patterns of certain individuals, can see that in Ghana’s parliament.

The former Information Minister in the Atta Mills administration made these comments when he spoke at a recent forum at the British Council auditorium, Accra, on the topic ‘Communicating for the common good: challenges and prospects in Ghana today’.

He said even though in the august house, those in favour and those opposing government business are seen clearly, parliamentarians work together at the committee stages.

“Most of the work that we [Parliamentarians] do is done at the Committee stage, and there, we are very friendly with each other because we need to come to a closure. There are also external forces so parliamentarians bond,” he noted.

He said when it comes to throwing of placards in the house, “that becomes like boys’ boisterousness.”

He added that such behaviour by parliamentarians is a way of showing off, something he was very much against when he was representing the people of Ablekuma South, but he had no option so he joined his colleagues in order not to be called the ‘black sheep’.

“In Parliament, I was supposed to be the one with the deepest voice… so if I realize that we were being outshouted, I’ll join in the fray,” Mr Baffour said with smiles.

The reality of Parliament, Fritz Baffour said, is actually behind closed doors and not what goes on in the chamber where people see those they’ve voted for doing all kinds of things.

The Second Faith in the Public Sphere Series dubbed the ‘Palaver Session’ was jointly Organised by Arrupe Jesuit Institute (AJI) and the Catholic Professional Guilds (CPG)