General News of Monday, 17 July 2017

Source: peacefmonline.com

Parliament passes good laws; Casely Hayford goofed - Kweku Baako

Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide play videoAbdul Malik Kweku Baako, Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide

Kweku Baako has condemned Sydney Casely Hayford's remarks about Parliament.

Mr. Casely Hayford, a member of pressure group OccupyGhana undermined the essence of the Legislative House in the country.

According to him, Members of Parliament pass "stupid" laws and so, the House deserve to be used for tourism purposes rather than for law-making.

Addressing the comments, renowned journalist and managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Kweku Baako felt the comments were very unfortunate.

He said on Joy FM's "News File" on Saturday that though Mr. Casely Hayford may think that Parliament has lived its usefulness in the country, his comment "is not a fair statement to make of the corporate entity called Parliament. Look, they don't read the papers that they're given. They don't think through what the challenges are. This could be legit because we have experience of certain things that have happened in Parliament before".

Quoting portions of Casely Hayford's comments that he would turn Parliament into a tourist site if given the chance, Kweku Baako registered his disagreement stating emphatically that "this is not a federal State. He was talking federalism...clearly out of context. Okay. If you want to talk about the need to change the governance structure, the need to even amend the constitution for a drastic review or for our governance structure as an intellectual exercise, you can make that point. There are people who still believe in federalism. There are people who thought we lost opportunity when we went for unitary republican system in this country. I'm not one of those though. I prefer this system. I think it's been the best".

To him, the House has been passing good laws that have shaped the nation positively.

"...let's be honest. They may have passed some laws that some of us don't think are progressive enough but they pass many good laws...Some of which emanated from civil society activism and advocacy, and have done much for our good governance practice. So this is a very sweeping over-generalized statement that is not good enough", he stressed.