- "I’ll entreat my brothers in opposition to compromise and at the same time the government should also compromise because you can’t be on the defensive all the time. If you do that there’ll be no peace. We need to come together in the name of the country and move things forward.”
The MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, has said Ghana’s Parliament can be likened to a marketplace because there is no order in it.
The current parliament – the eighth of the Fourth Republic – is split down the middle between the two main political parties, posing the risk of gridlock on finalising national business, especially when it comes to passing bills.
“There is no decorum,” the maverick politician said on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Tuesday (22 February 2022).
“The way we are handling Parliament is like we’re in Makola – the busiest market at the Central Business District in Accra. It’s all because the numbers are close and in actual fact you don’t even know who’s the Majority, except when you add the independent candidate to it,” Agyapong said, in conversation with Kwaku Nhyira-Addo.
Worst period in Parliament
Agyapong said he no longer has the “zeal” to attend to Parliament because of the chaotic nature of debates.
“What is happening in Parliament is not interesting at all. This is the worst throughout my six terms in Parliament. When I’m going to Parliament I don’t even have the zeal. And nothing is being done about it.
“I’ll entreat my brothers in opposition to compromise and at the same time the government should also compromise, because you can’t be on the defensive all the time. If you do that there’ll be no peace.
“We need to come together in the name of the country and move things forward,” Agyapong said.
Watch the full interview below:
Pianim: Akufo-Addo and Mahama must meet over crisis in Parliament
The economist and liberal political stalwart Kwame Pianim has suggested that President Nana Akufo-Addo and his predecessor John Mahama must meet to address the crisis in Parliament.
With the almost perfectly even split between the two leading political parties in the currentparliament, Ghana runs the risk of gridlock in trying to resolve national debates, particularly over the passing of the 2022 Budget, first presented to the House in November 2021.
Pianim said the two statesmen must engage in dialogue to settle the matter as soon as possible.
“It is a misfortune for Ghana that the president doesn’t have the parliament to implement his agenda. This is his last term. But, as the Chinese say, ‘Every crisis presents an opportunity,’ so you don’t let it go to waste.
“I had expected the president and then former president [John] Mahama to sit down quietly and say, ‘How do we make this thing work?’ Don’t leave it to Parliament to do,” Pianim told the host of The Asaase Breakfast Show, Kwaku Nhyira-Addo.
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