I am not sure if many were aware of this fact, but Ghana’s Parliament had not been in session for some three months. Parliament had not been in session since Friday, July 28, 2007 and its members just returned from their hiatus just on Monday, October 23, 2007. (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=128184)
In this period of complete and unashamedly “non performance,” many a Member of Parliament had been traveling around, taking care of personal matters (e.g. campaigning for the presidency ) in serving their own selfish agendas, not the national one. You can easily go to the stories posted on “Ghanaians Abroad” section here on Ghanaweb for the past three months, with the increased level of documented MPs’ travels abroad, to find out exactly what I mean. What were these MPs doing during all this time away? If not wasting taxpayers’ funds on crooked personal business deals and other salacious matters?
In the midst of all these wanton waste of national resources (as these MPs were still being paid their normal salaries and allowances while traveling at the country’s expense during this period while Parliament was in recess), the country has been experiencing some trying challenges and difficulties (such as the recent rash of harsh rain and flood, particularly in the Northern parts of the country). One begs to ask the question, who should have been putting the nation’s affairs in order while these MPs were out and about shooting the breeze doing their own thing?
No wonder nothing ever gets done in our country. How can these MPs take off from working for a whole good three months and expect the country to run smoothly by itself like a well-oiled machine? No wonder every Kwaku and Amma want to become an MP these days. That's a whole quarter of a year that is being wasted away—and that is just for now, for just this one break.(out of the total of 2 or 3 recess breaks annually, meaning “working” only about half of the year, if not less).
And some of these lazy parliamentarians have the gall to continually bemoan and complain about supposedly how sacrificial their services and how underpaid their jobs are? Yes, running around on taxpayers’ funds and chasing after young girls must be a really tough life. Some may argue that other democracies and nations also have recess. That is indeed a true fact, but FOR THIS LONG? What kind of a country are we running here? I understand session breaks (as they exist everywhere else in the democratic world) are normal, but isn’t it a shame that some lazy crooks who often work less than 8 hours a day and many at times don’t show up for parliamentary sessions when they are actually “in session” are being PAID IN FULL to work for ONLY HALF OF THE YEAR? Is this how a country is supposed to run? Is this how the now esteemed "industrialized" nations were built? Is this how Kufuor's Golden Age of Business is to be run? Is this how these so-called and supposedly "self-made" men and women successfully operated their private entities before going to work in public sector?
It seems not to really matter their political stripes—members of parliament appear to be in collusion to take advantage of the people. Please, don't anybody tell me that we don’t have any hard-working Ghanaians back in Ghana who just can't find employment. What is wrong with our country? What is wrong with our people? Don't we have any personal self worth and pride? Don't our people know what is going on and know how to speak up for their rights? If these lazy MPs don't want to work, please let get rid of them --- ALL OF THEM---and find people who are starving for work to fill their positions!!!
Ghana needs a social revolution. Our so-called elites, dignitaries, intellectuals or whatever you choose to call these “sheep in wolves' clothing” have taken advantage of our admittedly gullible and powerless masses for granted for far too long. My fellow brothers and sisters, NOW is the time! Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, not next year! NOW!!! We have been taken for fools for far too long by a selected and elected few. Rise up! Go stumping on the doorsteps and knocking on the doors of your traditional chiefs, district assemblymen, DCEs, MPs, Ministers, and even the president (if you can get past his staunch security apparatus) and say “Dang it,” you won’t take it anymore.
Our country’s first president’s famous Positive Action towards our former colonial masters, the British, included civil disobedience, non-cooperation, boycotts, and strikes. I now call on all my democracy, accountability, and transparency loving fellow Ghanaians to do the same and take these same actions towards our neo-colonial leaders (i.e. our current so-called government and civil servant leaders). Is what I am calling for radical? Yes! But, is it justifiable? Absolutely!!! We have been too patient and too tired while we sit and watch a few greedy crowns take our limited national resources and funds as their own personal cash cow. Ghana is in a war. Not a war of one people or tribe against another, but a war of classes and ideals. The “leaders” of Ghana have a social contract with us, the people, to SERVE, not to be served. Send a strong message to the current members of parliament this upcoming election year by voting them ALL out and voting for new MPs who have the guts and ethical will to do what is right and what is in the best interest of the people (e.g. changing laws such as these ridiculously long parliamentary recess breaks and passing the Freedom of Information and Declaration of Assets bills, among others). God bless you all—and God bless Ghana!
Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.
