A group of former legislators have made a distress call to Parliament to come to their aid through the provision of pension schemes and welfare packages.

The former Members of Parliament (MPs), who claim their current living conditions are bad, made the appeal during a conference and general meeting of the Forum of Former MPs on Wednesday, July 19.

Addressing the gathering, its outgoing President and former Hohoe South MP, Kosi Kedem, urged parliament to also provide them with better retirement packages since most of them have remained jobless after exiting the legislature.

“We humbly appeal to parliament to do something urgent about the nasty state of former MPs,” he said.

He called for a pension scheme for sitting MPs and if possible “extend it to former MPs”. Alternatively he said “MPs should be made to retire on part of their salary” as the current end-of-service benefit scheme or “gratuity of collecting bulk sum gives a false hope, it is like a mirage; it is not sustainable.”

He said former MPs are stigmatised politically and cannot get any form of employment.

The former lawmaker on behalf of his other colleagues also called on the state to extend facilities including diplomatic passports for their use.

Mr Kedem made another appeal for former MPs to be given political appointments irrespective of their partisan affiliations.