History was made in 2009, when the former President of the United States of America, President Barack Obama visited Ghana, and delivered one of the most outstanding speeches in the then 5th parliament of the Republic of Ghana. History is being made 12 years afterwards in 2021, but for the wrong reasons.
On July 11, 2009, during his visit to Ghana, former President Barack Obama said that: “Africa doesn’t need strong men, it needs strong institutions.” He also added that, “You have the power to hold your leaders accountable, and to build institutions that serve the people.”
Quite unfortunately, these statements can only be found in the annals of history and in public archives only, but not truly exemplified in the house of parliament where they were first uttered.
Whilst it would be in place to blame parliament for failing to preserve the sanctity of our democracy, we, the citizens are also culpable of same when we have not adequately been up to speed with holding our leaders accountable in building a strong parliament.
The unexpected happened throughout a ten hour ordeal for the election of a Speaker for the 8th Parliament of the Republic, where quite a number of MPs publicly displayed unconstitutional acts (from brawls among themselves, kicking of ballot boxes and snatching of ballot sheets) in contravention of the constitution they had pledged to protect and defend.
Meanwhile, the country had just come out of a general election in about exactly a month, which outcome saw similar incidents of fights and the snatching of ballot boxes. The only difference between the two remains the unfortunate instances of death recorded during the elections.
This, therefore, brings to question whether this newly constituted parliament— a hung parliament, is what we have ever wanted to shape our democracy when it has woefully failed from the onset.
Dr. Camara Obeng had once warned that: “We should do politics of issues and not politics of type and traditions- Once I am an NPP or NDC, anything coming from my party I support it but anything from the opposing party I must kick against. That kind of politics doesn’t help.”
He also made the point that, the fundamental issue that needs to be addressed as a nation is the caliber of people who are being voted for as Members of Parliament (MPs)- “the quality of people who are going into parliament, do they have what it takes? This is what we have not dealt with as a country,” he stressed.
By the display of these unpopularly ‘historic’ actions today, would it be in place for citizens to become skeptical about whether the decisions which are to be taken in parliament would be in the interest of the people or on the basis of party-politics?
This notwithstanding, on the other side of the coin, we, the citizens have for the most part, had a good laugh about the whole issue and are more likely to forget in a few days.
After all, either intentionally or unintentionally, we have been described as easily forgetful of issues when they happen— we make a big fuss over issues only for a moment, and then voila! Everything is reset to normal, like nothing never happened.
Simply, we have not held our leaders accountable for their actions and so, it may not be the last time this will happen in the 8th parliament for the next four years. We need to be ready to hold the fort of our democracy when our institutions are failing us.
What we can therefore do in this direction, is the need for a better informed citizenry and one that is more concerned and not passive in the affairs of parliament than previously.
The press must be actively involved for this to happen. Considerably, how the citizenry is informed on parliamentary proceedings and affairs and the depth of discussions held on parliamentary issues should be well crafted to foster critique from citizenry.
Also, the practice of endorsing or dismissing an idea merely because it is from a particular MP belonging to a political party one does not favour is a way of avoiding the hard work of citizenship, which requires thorough analysis of the relative merits of an idea or proposal.
Political labeling that is widespread, gives way for MPs who know that they can just say anything to woo or win an audience who are not insistent on the right but have the traditional ideology of party-politics.
President Obama was right 12 years ago when he said, the power lies in the people to build strong institutions, and he is right even now.
