The Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Alban Bagbin has described the political arena in Ghana as “deteriorating”.
He attributed the recent deterioration in politics in Ghana, partly to the inability or the failure of the political parties, together with civil society, to educate the up and coming politicians as to the requirements of good governance, that is, education on what is expected of a person when they enter the political arena.
Speaking on PM Express on Thursday night, the Speaker of the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic of Ghana who was sworn into office earlier in the day has called on Ghana as a country to brace up and restore the dignity that has gradually eluded the politics in the country.
“Politics in Ghana is deteriorating and you can write an article on the rise and fall of democracy in Ghana. I think that many people in politics now are being carried away by emotions than reason. Why the increase in violence? Not only physical violence, but even language use in our national discourse – you see, people are using intemperate language; impolite and offensive- in fact dead language, there’s been an increase in that.
“So, you see when you go to international conferences now, is not Ghana that is sitting up there, Ghana is down there among the others. This is a clear indicator of where we are now in our political development and I think, that as a country, we should sit up”.
Mr. Speaker further indicated that politicians are supposed to conduct themselves in a manner that is honorable to serve as role models to the youth and the younger generation.
“When you enter into the political arena, you are supposed to be a role model, you are supposed to be a leader. You are to be seen doing what is right to add to improve the quality of living. People are not taught how to do that. So, you see in our politics in Ghana, there is no ethics, there is no code of conduct”.
According to him, it has become the norm for people to ask to be voted into office not because they wanted to serve their communities and the nation as a whole but just for the praise that comes along with such positions. This, according to him, has brought the country down even in the rankings of good democracies in the African Continent.
“You know the values have changed. When we started politics, we had a set of values and those set of values were ignited during the revolutionary days where a lot of us both the NDC and NPP got caught up. We wanted to fight to eliminate corruption, we wanted to serve the people – Servant Leadership.
“We wanted to ensure that we eliminated ignorance and poverty. We wanted to make sure that we eliminated discrimination in politics – we wanted to empower women and we wanted to include the youth in government”.
He further stated that during those periods, even though there were some violence, but one could see that the focus of the politician was to get things done properly in society. He added that they, as young politicians by then, picked up those things which attracted lots of people into politics.
“So when we came to parliament in 1993, there were no conditions of service. We worked and made sure that the dictate of the constitution was followed. We passed all the laws we had to pass, all the institutions had put in place the structures needed to kick-start democracy on a solid foundation”.
He, however, lamented that the recent political arena of Ghana has been left unregulated because there are no dos and don’ts so people just get into politics to buy votes. This, he indicated, has resulted in money becoming the dominant determinant of entering into politics in Ghana, “and has destroyed the fabric altogether “.
According to him, hard work and the desire to serve the country has been replaced by the love for money and the love of power.
“Power is the ability to influence, to persuade people. But the love of power is the love of aggrandizement – you want to be seen as the all in all and is you first not Ghana. So that is the moment now. And so you see that the constituents, voters, the citizens are now into what they stand to benefit as individuals than the whole society”.
He explained that due to this self-centeredness on the part of the citizens, politicians who construct roads, build schools, provide water, electricity are not acknowledged and people now vote for their benefits but not the society.
According to him, if you use to walk kilometers to attend school and now a school has been constructed in your community, that alone is in monetary terms because it has reduced the deficits.
“But they can’t see that because we are not focused on educating them. Let them feel these things. So, everybody is looking at whether you can bring him a motorbike, a pick-up, whether you can pay school fees, whether you can get him a job, scholarship; those are the things that they are looking for”.
He also exposed and expressed his displeasure about certain happenings in the NDC by the new crop of politicians, who are mostly the youth.
According to him, after serving in parliament for some time, he decided to leave but he was carried away upon the persuasion by the then flagbearer of the NDC, the Late Professor John Evans Atta Mills of blessed memory, to get involved in the campaign since the 2008 elections were going to be tough and his services will be needed.
He indicated that, he did a lot to bring the NDC back to power in 2008 but that has been forgotten by the party, something he said, has not been acknowledged.
“But there is a new crop of politicians who have no appreciation of the history of the party. I read a lot of messages on Facebook and others and I see a lot of them don’t even mention me at all. My party, I’m not talking about those who are not members of my party, so, it shows that there’s been a dramatic change in the politics in this country”.
As the new Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Alban Bagbin has pledged to push hard towards the realization of the concept of separation of powers in the country during his tenure of office.
