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Opinions of Friday, 16 December 2011

Columnist: Sarpong, Justice

45 New Constituencies? This Is Corruption

Sarpong, Justice
"Reports reaching Daily Guide indicate that the Electoral Commission (EC) is on the verge of creating 45 more constituencies, as against 20 earlier reported. Though anticipated following the creation of 42 new districts, in addition to the recent Housing and Population Census, the 45 constituencies have set tongues wagging as to the motive of the EC which had earlier ruled out the possibility of mass constituencies."
Ghanaians are going to be taken to the cleaners again by our corrupt electoral commission and politicians. Do we as a country need 45 more constituencies to augment the already 230 constituencies with most of these members of Parliament hardly participating in the debate at the house?
Let the Parties and the Electoral Commissioner tell us how 45 new Members of Parliament will make the life of the ordinary Ghanaian better. Are we as people just created to be stupid? Does it make sense to continue adding constituencies because the population keeps growing? Just make the constituencies more representative. Instead of some constituencies having 20,000 voters and others having 100,000 make it a rule where a constituency should have between 50,000 to 80,000 voters.
We have a population of 25 million people and we are going to have 275 members of Parliament? How much is the new 45 constituencies going to cost us? If one constituency will cost one million to maintain, (Salaries, common fund, transportation, ex-gratia etc), that means 45 million dollars going to waste that could have been used to build a hospital or two or 100 new schools. Is the government telling us it needs 45 new members of Parliament to run the country better? This is only a job for the boys and to suck it to the poor taxpayers. United States of America has more than 320 million people with only 435 house of Representative members for the past fifty years without adding a new constituency, why can't we do the same? The government spend 40% of the budget just for salaries of government workers leaving only 60% funds for developmental projects and we keep adding unwanted workers like members of Parliament to the payroll, does this make sense? Are we a cursed people we can't do anything right? We don't need even one more constituency
Where are the members of AFAG and other like minded groups? We need to demonstrate against any new constituency in Ghana. Instead of trimming the present 230 constituencies to just about 150 constituencies, we are going to add more to take care of our greedy Politicians who want to have easy pay check and car loans, are we this daft as people?
We continue to cry for our country whilst the greedy politicians are laughing themselves to the Bank to bank their fat checks for nothing done. Ghanaians engage themselves on issues that have no effect on their lives and will foam on the mouth with hate when important issue like this will hardly receive any protestations from them. Let it be a homosexual issue and we will see million comments almost all of them being bigoted but when a policy that will affect their lives comes to the fore, they nimbly walk to their daily chores without the care of the world. Our Politicians know the kind of people they are presiding over and as long as we continue to act like zombies and uneducated lot, they will continue to suck it to us because we are too dumb to know what is important and what is not. WE DESERVE WHAT IS BEING FED TO US BY THESE GREEDY POLITICIANS.
Justice Sarpong
Houston, Texas
Her inspirational messages are also available on her Youtube Channel: youtube.com/user/ourfathershouseghana Find ouw more about Our Father's House on their official facebook page Our Father's House Ghana Ministries.