Parliamentary CSO and Monitoring group, Parliamentary Network Africa (PN Africa) is cautioning lawmakers in the country against entertaining mediocrity in the legislative arm of government under the guise of a high attrition rate of parliamentarians.
Some 66 MPs of the 8th Parliament, comprising 20 from the NDC and 46 from the NPP, will not be returning to parliament following the conclusion of parliamentary primaries of the two leading parties in the country.
Majority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has bemoaned the massive exodus of the incumbent MPs, adding it is worrisome for the democracy of the country. “The longer a person stays in Parliament, the better the performance of that person. It is for him, it is for his party, it is for Parliament, and it is for our democracy”, he told the state broadcaster GBC.
But Executive Director of PNAfrica, Sammy Obeng asserts some MPs deserved to be booted out.
“I am of your opinion and have always maintained, there are some members of Parliament who have lost who have no business staying in Parliament. We need not also hide behind higher attrition rate and celebrate mediocrity. There are some people who have absolutely no business staying in Parliament. And so, one needs to not pity them at all if their constituents have also recognized that.”, he told Starr News
On assertions parliament would lose its most experienced hands if the trend continue, Sammy Obeng says, new MPs must be given the opportunities to learn and hone their skill.
“There are some great ones also who losing them from Parliament will be a major, major blow to us. And we need to find a way to balance these. Yes, these people also learnt when they go into Parliament as freshmen and every year, they’ve been able to hone the skill of being good legislators. We believe that the new ones will be able to have that same kind of opportunity to learn.”, he added.
“We are now getting to the trend where it is looking like we will be wiping off about 50% of our MPs every election, so while we should encourage so that those who are high performing, those who are supporting the Parliament, those who are contributing possibly to Parliament are maintained, we also need not to use that as a basis to keep in people who are adding close to nothing to the kind of Parliamentary democracy we are practicing”, he concluded
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Edem Kojo
