Eighth Parliament may be more toothless – Prof Gyampo

A Professor at the University of Ghana, Ransford Gyampo, has taken a swipe at the current Parliament following the unanimous approval of the Minister-designate for Finance on Monday, March 29.

According to him, it came as a surprise for Ken Ofori-Atta to receive unanimous backing as the Minority Caucus had been incessantly critical of him.

Demanding an apology from the Minority, Prof Gyampo opined that politicians may be engaged in politics of convenience, which to him “is a needless sale of the soul of human conscience and this must stop”.

“It appears the kind of Parliament we have now may even be more toothless in rubber-stamping executive decisions than the previous ones,” he stated in a write-up on Wednesday, March 31.

“The minority group would only bark and hypnotize us into thinking they would assert the role of parliament as countervailing authority. But they would sing the praises of the ruling government even louder than members of the government, when they are required to assert parliamentary sovereignty.”

Find the write-up below:

The minority group, especially, their members who pontificate on finance and the economy, owe us an explanation on the unanimous approval of KOA as FM. I personally do not have problems with the FM, but we were, through the incessant bastardization of his policies by the minority group, made to believe that he was the most greedy, insensitive, corrupt and incompetent Minister in the previous administration.

Was the Minister that good in his first term to warrant such a unanimous approval? What was the basis of the critical stance against some of his policies by the minority group? Was it just propaganda against him or it was sheer ignorance on their part? Were they criticizing the man, just to look good in the sight of the populace? Does it mean their criticisms weren’t well-founded? What?

If KOA is that much of a political saint, then the minority group owe Ghanaians an apology for demonizing the man, and hence forth, they must not be taken serious on their criticisms of government. We cannot be taken for granted all the time by politicians. We aren’t always that gullible. The kind of nauseating politics of convenience being practiced in Ghana, is a needless sale of the soul of human conscience and this must stop.

It appears the kind of Parliament we have now may even be more toothless in rubber-stamping executive decisions than the previous ones. The minority group would only bark and hypnotize us into thinking they would assert the role of parliament as countervailing authority. But they would sing the praises of the ruling government even louder than members of the government, when they are required to assert parliamentary sovereignty. The evidence is their contradictory conducts at the Appointment Committee and the Plenary Session of the House.



Yaw Gyampo

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