"No Brokeman Should Be MP" - Wayo

By Alfred Ogbamey

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the Ayawaso East constituency, Mr. Kofi Wayo, has suggested parliamentary aspirants should be self-made personalities who would not go to the Legislative House to live off the taxes of the citizenry.

Wayo, who was speaking on radio programme dubbed ‘Front page on an Accra station , Joy last Friday, suggested that successful personalities are more likely to have the moral and ethical courage to raise issues and speak independently of the problems of their constituents and seek to have them resolved

He advocated a similar reform in the selection of ministers. “It’s the same with the government. This colonial system that we’re practising doesn’t work for us. Why should you become a Minister and get a house, free car, free house boy, free washmen, and free cook all to live off you [the taxpayer]?

Show me anywhere in the civilized world where they give you free car for this, free house etc. They don’t do it. And you’ve got 89 ministers who are living like that. How much does it cost? Can’t we put that money into building factories, building houses?”

The suggestion by the cigar-puffing Wayo is likely to engender debate on the issue of qualification for Parliament and the need for parties to select resourceful individuals to represent them in Parliament.

Parliamentary proceedings for example continue to be hampered by activities of parliamentarians who have had to leave business in the House to see to private business interests. Others have been caught in recent news as having let out their official residence, sometimes at dollar-indexed rates, to makes ends meets, while reports of MPs being lured with perks of office to soften stance on issues abound or vote

Some have also had to campaign for an increase in their parliamentary allowance at the expense of other important debates and activities in the House.

Continuing, Wayo said he opted to run on the ticket of the NPP because the ruling NDC government has lost its focus and direction on the economy and has resorted to awards of contracts to fronts and friends and priding itself on ensuring that they resource their friends to do businesses at the expense of the state.

“This present administration is totally anti-business. They’re just like what we call emergency contracting: You are my friend, l become a Minister then, l tell you go make some proposal and I’d give you a contract on a highway or building some road that’s gonna collapse in a few years time”.

Wayo said Ghanaians should, however, be thankful that amidst all the failure around us, a semblance of democratic governance is emerging, since the time to have questioned the current crop of leadership was when they came into power.

“When all the kwa tre kwas (non-achievers) came out during the revolution and took over , you could tell there’s gonna be a problem” he said, adding that the Rawlings regime” need to be praised, however, “knowing that they didn’t know much when they came to power.”

The cigar-chomping Wayo accused the government of deriving satisfaction in holding talkshops, seminars and banquets at the expense of solving the economic woes of the country.

“The people are suffering, there’s malnutrition and disease and you are banqueting. If the people are progressing and they’re banqueting, that’s okay. But, this banqueting is only for the government with the taxpayer’s money. Is that right when the people have no jobs, factories are not being built and those that are operating are closing down? And you are banqueting! Does that make sense to you?”, he asked.

“ I understand even the President is going to Switzerland for a medical check-up. Where are our Army doctors? Why don’t we develop our own medical system like 37 Military Hospital? We have good doctors, they should be given the financial backbone to develop themselves so that we can rely on ourselves. We cannot rely on foreigners, we should rely 99% on ourselves.

How many Ghanaians can go to Switzerland and get a check-up and come back? How many?, he asked, adding that what government should have done was to resource local manpower to meet the country’s needs.

Wayo, famous for his controversial views and flashy lifestyle, also offered a plausible explanation on the numerous deaths of ministers of state in English medical centres.

Medicine, he argued, is 60%-70% about the inter-personal relationship between patients and doctors and that ministers of state continue dying at English hospitals because the doctors do not have an understanding of Ghanaian diseases and cannot find solutions to them in time.

He described Finance Minister Kwame Peprah as a failure who has failed to take Ghana’s economy out of the woods, when other economies are experiencing a boom. He questioned the government’s claims that the problems of the economy have to do with external factors and said it’s due to massive mismanagement.

He said the government is capable of paying workers ?10,000 as daily wage if it wants to and that the claim by Peprah that government cannot afford a ?5000 daily wage was false.

“You check into the system, you [government] can pay these people ?10,000. The money is there, they’re just squandering it; it’s mismanagement”

Government must devise appropriate means of tackling the economic woes of Ghanaians since it is responsible for collecting taxes from them, he said, adding, “when they (Ghanaians) buy something, they pay VAT, when they do business, they pay; our mothers who trade in the market, they pay to AMA.”