The Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu has criticized new members of the 7th Parliament over what to him is their apparent indifference in the law making process.
He has therefore described the performance of the new entrants as “abysmal.”
Mr Iddrisu made these comments at a forum organised by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
According to him, very few, about five new MPs, exhibit regular interest in the legislative processes in the House.
“If you were to ask me to make an assessment, I can narrow to only five newcomers who are interested in the rudiments of lawmaking.”
Not deviating from the concerns of the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu who is the Majority Leader also said that new MPs need to spend more than 8 years in Parliament to be able to build their competencies in the matters of the House.
“The Member of Parliament and even Parliament as an institution will have to have their capacity continuously built over a long period. Not two terms, perhaps not even three terms.
“It is axiomatic that the longer one stays in Parliament, the better parliamentarian one becomes. The MP becomes a very diligent, knowledgeable and prolific debater and lawmaker after staying in Parliament for a very long period of time.”
Including the above concerns of the leadership of the House, they also expressed their worries about the increasing rate of absenteeism by Parliamentarian.
Absenteeism has been characteristic in the running of Parliament business for some time now.
In 2017, Ministers of State who double as Members of Parliament were the worst culprits of absenteeism without permission during the first and second sittings of the 7th Parliament.
The Ministers, including deputies, absented themselves from at least 15 sittings without the permission of the Speaker of Parliament.
Attrition rate in Ghana’s Parliament
At the end of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Parliamentary primaries held in June this year, about 40 incumbent MPs lost their seats.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu who has been consistently advocating for the protection of experienced MPs said that, established democracy everywhere in the world was guided and guarded. According to him, entering Parliament “is not unfettered anywhere.”
He said that for one to be effective lawmaker, “you need to be tutored in governance and come up through the ranks of political governance.”
The Minister of Parlimentary Affairs added that, not only elections can be used to choose MPs,
“but selecting and acclaiming people is also a way of choosing people.
“So I do not think that necessarily at the end of every four years we should have elections to open the slews gate to allow anybody to come in to contest.”
At the end of the 6th Parliament similar concerns were made by the leadership of the House.
Then Majority Leader Alban Sumana Bagbin, noted that 80 NDC MPs exited the House. Out of that number, 42 were first time MPs.
The current Majority Leader who was then the Leader of the Minority observed that, “Out of the 123 we began with, 60 were new entrants. Today, of the 169 that will be entering the next Parliament on the ticket of the NPP, 80 are continuing MPs and as many as 89 are new breed.
“I am the lone ranger in my Party’s caucus from 1997-2001 stock. Just two remain in the 2001-2005 stock. For the 2005-2009 group, we have 20 remaining. The current majority caucus who are in the incoming minority suffer from the same affliction.”
