Public Agenda (Accra)
Kwaku Baah- Acheamfour
22 August 2008
Cape Coast — Mr. Aboagye Kumanyene, an educationist in Cape Coast has called for a policy of evaluating the performance of MPs in parliament other than allowing polling station chairmen and other individuals to use their 'discretion' in removing MPs from parliament.
He argued that many sitting MPs are not given the chance to represent their constituencies again in parliament as most polling station chairmen tend to pass vote of no confidence in them even at the primaries, denying them the opportunity to contest in the general elections. "When they are lucky and they sail through, they are then voted against by the constituents."
For him, if the nation is to derive optimum benefits from MPs other than raising their hands to approve bills, the experienced and competent ones must be maintained to even serve as a repository of knowledge for new and young parliamentarians.
He stressed that until such a policy is employed, the nation would continue going back and forth in its parliamentary proceedings as any time new MPs come in it takes time for them to fit well into their duties.
He lamented that many Ghanaians do not understand the work of parliamentarians and are always accusing them of 'non performance."
He therefore called for the restructuring of the various parties' constitutional provisions to make way for competent MPs who are to maintain their seats in parliament. Such MPs would employ their experience in the making of laws and also in the deliberation of contractual agreements among other things to the benefit of all.
"Before a person is allowed to contest a seat he should be scrutinized to assess his contribution in the party so that untested, incompetent individuals would not emerge from anywhere to kick out the competent ones from."
Mr. Aboagye Kumanyene however stressed that MPs who are ineffective should be made to make way for new members who have knowledge on parliamentary affairs. "In parliament the older the better just like wine, as it even takes a lot of time and resources to train new MPs to fit into parliamentary setting."
He therefore called on the youth who would want to enter parliament to start early at the local and district levels and rise through the ranks.
"They could start at the assembly level and rise to the level of DCEs and later as MPs like Dr Papa Kwesi Ndoum did so that not only would they start early in contributing to the nations development but also would gain rich experience that would aid them in future parliamentary duties" he added.
He also called on the National Commission for Civic Education and other related bodies to help educate Ghanaians on the functions of MPs so that the citizenry would appreciate the work of the MP.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Public Agenda. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
