“If we are to look at the role of an MP, our MPs are failing us” this is according to Johnson Ayine a member of the NPP regional communication team in the Upper East Region.
Mr. Ayine was responding to a topic for discussion which was presented on Apexnews Ghana’s flagship programme on Friday, October 7, 2022, dubbed: “SPEAK OUT UPPER EAST”. The question presented to panels is, “What is your general overview with regard to our representatives from this part of the country as Parliamentary Caucus? Do you think they represent the region well development-wise?
Meanwhile, responding to the question, Mr. Ayine said: “What I am seeing as somebody who is from the north and who has been a political actor for over decades, I think we haven’t gotten enough from our representative of Parliament and this is a fact. It is something that they cannot run away from it. They can say they are doing it to their satisfaction, they say that there are obstacles, and what have you. But everybody knows that to become a Member of Parliament, there are A, B, C, and D challenges that you will face. But conveniently, some of them always tell that their role is to go and pass laws”.
“What they are forgetting is that an MP’s main role is to scrutinize the executive properly. To make sure that they put the executive on its track to do the deliverables. But they say passed laws, what laws? Laws are there for you to pass but your job is to scrutinize them. In the process of securitizing what the executives are supposed to do, you ought to also make sure that whatever the executive is doing, is of benefit to the country and your constituency in particular”. He said
“So, you need to leverage that opportunity that has been given to you to scrutinize. Scrutinizing government expenditure or government businesses does not necessarily mean that if they come to parliament, maybe there is a perception that there is corruption, lets sight an example like Pwalugu Multi-Purpose dam… oh the money is too big, so I have to go and make sure that somebody is not corrupt No. Scrutinizing does not necessarily mean that you should make sure that there is only value for money. But the project that is going to be executed, will it benefit the state? Is it of benefit to wherever am coming from? Is it something that is of priority? So, the scrutinization is not limited to the perceived corruption aspect alone, it goes beyond that”.
Mr. Ayine believes, the MPs after scrutinizing have the responsibility to communicate back to their constituents before and after. “But unfortunately in Ghana, we have allowed our MPs. They go there and make augment on our behalf without our consent and after the argument whatever comes out, they don’t come back to communicate to us and they claim they are representing the good people of Bolga, representing the good people of Talensi when small consultation has not been done to know whether your people like it or not”.
He extended his call to the MPs “I want to call on the Ghanaian legislatures to make good use of the existing technology, and the existing polarization of media in the country. Today, any MP that wants to sample the opinions of his or her constituents can easily use the radio station, social media, and online portals and gather information but they don’t do it. They hardly even come to social media because their perception is on social media they are insulting people, they don’t want to engage the media, and the media have difficulty getting them to engage on their platforms. That is why you see them talking too much when they are in opposition and when they are in government they are silent”.
“So, if we are to look at the role of an MP, our MPs are failing us.
Unfortunately, you have this part of the country the Caucus is weak, you hardly find or even who is their Caucus leader, you hardly hear them having Caucus meetings, and you hardly hear them moving as Caucus to go and find out what is happening at ABCD, you hardly see your Caucus demanding good result from policymakers implementers. That is the difficulty we have. They go there and put party interest first more than their community, constituency, and the region”. Johnson Ayine stressed
Source: Apexnewsgh.com|Ghana
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