Parliament is in crisis – Bagbin

Former Majority Leader of Parliament Alban Sumana Kinsford Bagbin says Ghana’s legislative arm is in dire straits and needs all Ghanaians to come on board and help put it back on track.

“In fact, I think we are beyond challenges,” the Member of Parliament for Nadowli/Kaleo Constituency stated.

He was speaking on TV3’s Hot Issues over the weekend.

He said Ghana’s Parliament was expected to be one of the best on the continent but it is saddled with challenges as a corollary of the economic challenges in the country.

“[Parliament] is an institution in Ghana and we are also affected with what happens in the country.”

He said though the 275-member legislature is replete with “very high” human resource, “we are still having challenges in areas such as finance, logistics and, in fact, the whole legal framework surrounding the work of Parliament and so Parliament seems to be stagnating.”

Mr Bagbin, who has been a member of the current Parliament since its inauguration in 1993, said the current situation faced by Parliament is ironical given that the Speaker is “one of us”.

“With that kind of record, we were expecting that this Parliament would have performed better than all the other Parliament but unfortunately we are all caught up in the challenges that the country is facing.”

He said though steps are being taken by leadership of the House to improve Parliament's lot, Ghanaians should all come on board and "stop the balme game and see where we really went wrong and see how we can improve and move ahead."