Following the actions taken by parliament against leading member of OccupyGhana, Casely-Hayford, many Ghanaians have cautioned social commentators to be factual in airing their views.
They expressed grave concern that many of these commentators speak without evidence.
Sydney Casely-Hayford, a leading member of Occupy Ghana and a financial analyst, was hurled before Parliament for contempt of parliament after he reportedly described Parliament as making “stupid decisions”.
He further detailed that if given the opportunity he will dissolve parliament and make a tourist site whilst speaking at “The Economic and Political Rise of Africa”.
He argued that looking at the expenditure of our Parliament and the laws they pass, Ghana would be better off without the Members of Parliament.
“These people are sitting there, spending money like crazy, making stupid decisions, and passing stupid laws. They don’t read the papers that they are given, they don’t think through what the challenges are…The first thing I will do if I had the opportunity is to break down Parliament. We don’t need it.
Maybe if we break it down we are wasting money but maybe we can use it as a tourist attraction, we can say, this is what we used to do in the past, so come for a tour and then we should just poster it all so people can see,” he asserted.
The outspoken commentator has apologised for his comments suggesting that they were taken out of context as he meant no harm.
This was after Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak, who was irritated by the comments called on the speaker to haul Casely-Hayford before the House insisting that the comments bother on the integrity of Parliament.
“I indeed went over the top, I do apologise for that. I used some language which I supposed I should not have used. I unreservedly apologize because in matured conversation, when you say something that you offend somebody and you are prompted, the least you can do is to say I’m sorry, it wasn’t meant to be offensive, this is where I was going and if it came out the wrong way then I do apologize sincerely, I have no reservation doing that,” he added.
However, most Ghanaians www.ghanaweb.com spoke to believed that his comments were unpardonable and out of place.
They noted that even though such views may be a general perception held, the platform he made those comments demanded that he provided some form of justification to buttress or clarify his point.