Have you ever heard this tale of Two Road Ministers? Well, one was from Ogyakrom; the other from Anago. They met at one of these numerous konom-tea (committee) meetings at an international forum. Both from West Africa, both English-speaking; they soon became friends. International conference over, they flew back to their respective countries but with the firm promise to visit and know each other’s family.
The Anago Minister was the first to visit. After the pleasantries, introductions, cocktails and late night men’s talk, they retired to bed. The next day, Saturday, the Ogyakrom man took his guest to the countryside to show him his estates and other properties. “How did you make them?” Good question. The host took the guest around roads and highways he had caused to be constructed shoddily to get ill-deserved booty for the multi-million-dollar properties. “Well-done!” After the Anago Minister patted his colleague at the back for a bad work well done, he threw the return-match invitation to him: “Next weekend, visit me in Anago-land.” When the Ogyakrom man visited Anago, he just couldn’t believe his eyes. “What a shock!” And how did you too make it?
The answer would appear the next day: Anago took Ogyakrom out to a thick forest. “That is the project that gave me the tens of millions of dollars,” he told his perplexed friend. “But, I can’t see any road here?” That was the visitor. “Well, as for me, I didn’t build the roads at all; I just collected the monies and pocketed!” These are some of our honourable men and women in government, senate, houses of representatives and legislatures in our time. But that brings to the fore one of our major dilemmas in this our second experiment with Western-style democracy. Lawmakers who break the law; ministers who misappropriate state funds and generally leaders who mislead. There are fine gentlemen and women among them; there are stinking nuts within. You may have heard the respected Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng recently bemoaning that corruption in the public service could be as high as 80%. Some of the public officials are elected or appointed political office holders who must be stopped in their tracks. It is in that consideration that I dedicate Ghana Today to the allegation that a sub-committee of Ghana’s Parliament took at least GHC100,000 – probably GHC150,000 – before sitting to consider a National Lotteries Bill it was charged to work on.
Before the matter gets investigated officially or shelved habitually, some explanations seem to be falling out. The former Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, James Klutse Avedzi, has admitted his committee received money from officials of the National Lottery Authority prior to deliberate on the amendment of the National Lottery Act, 2006 (Act 722). He said the Authority first presented C50,000 to the committee “but when we looked at the provisions, we realised that the amount was not sufficient so they promised to bring another C50,000.” Accra-based Joy FM that published the news adds that the legal adviser to the NLA, David Lamptey, in separate emails addressed to then Director General of the NLA, Brigadier General Martin Ahiaglo, requested the approval of a sum of C150,000 presumably to “push the bill for the consideration” by parliamentarians.
But, is it the norm that those on whom or with whom Parliament works are made to pay the cost of the work? Stories have been told in the recent past of organisations being investigated having to pay hotel bills for delegates who had to travel abroad as part of the investigations. Wouldn’t he who pays the piper call the tune? Are we so broke as to be unable to fund the functions of Parliament such that the NLA and other organisations should? If the NLA had failed to cough up, would the committee have, indeed, been unable to deliberate on the legislation?
Or, as part of the allegation goes, the money – whether 50,000, 100,000 or 150,000 Cedis – was an incentive for the members and not cost of doing business? Ei! Why? Aren’t parliamentarians paid for sitting either on the floor of the House, in committees, outside the House and even when they travel abroad? I stand to be corrected, but, the last time I checked, MPs were paid thrice or so more than the teachers, medics, lawyers and other mates they left in their constituencies to enter government. When I checked, I also realised that they were each paid over GHC100,000 every four years, just because they had been MPs – in the name of Ex-Gratia. If they couldn’t perform their official duties without taking tips, spoils of office or bribes; what moral right would they have to make law upon law to curb the stealing of a few hundred cedis by those in school feeding, electricity bill collection or Health Insurance administration? If leaders would mislead, what would the led do?
But, as I was saying, these are early days yet; times when we can hardly draw reliable conclusions. The MPs and the committee may be guilty or not guilty of bribery or any such crime. There strongly looks like there is an irregularity that needs to be curbed for the national good. Ghana Today is not in a rush to accuse any of the 275 men and women in the Legislature. If not for anything, the lesson of Blakk Raster who proclaimed a certain proportion of MPs abuse ganja and had to beg like a child, apart from losing his DJ job, is there as a warning. If not for anything, Alex Duodu’s backpedalling and apology after imputing ignorance to MPs is fresh in our memories. Plus the MP who alleged that many of his colleagues were fornicators and regretted his unguarded statement. Ghana Today is saying there are role models and real leaders in there; certainly, not all of the members are helpful. So, as such a serious allegation as bribery has erupted, let the Parliamentary Privileges Committee – or any such appropriate authority – do its investigation such that justice will be seen to have been done. Then, the fallouts…
If the committee were found to have acted within the confines of the law, what next? Ghana Today would urge that the state stops luring embassies, organisations and individuals into financing Parliament’s activities. The state should fully bankroll the Legislature’s programmes. But, what if this were concluded to be a clear case of bribery? Are there sanctions that can be brought against MPs collecting bribes before they perform functions for which they are attractively compensated every 30 days? Or, are MPs immune from prosecution and penal measures by the 1992 Constitution? Were that to be the case, wouldn’t we find it compelling to scrap such indemnity while we are still at the delayed Constitutional Review project?
Need for hygiene in politics
Be that as it may, this case of members of a sub-committee of Parliament asking clients to finance its activities – or taking bribes from clients – should be purposefully investigated. Appropriate action should be taken on the finding. For, we need hygiene in our politics, apologies Professor Patrick Lumumba. Today, in many parts of Africa, politicians are perceived as looters – not just like armed robbers and crooked civil servants – but looters on an industrial scale! We don’t want our leaders and lawmakers to be seen in that light. They like to be called Honourable MP, Honourable Minister, Honourable DCE, Honourable Assemblyman, Honourable Unit Committee Member. We don’t mind calling them so either.
As a matter of interesting digression, where did the honourable title all begin? It begun as a NICKNAME in the British Parliament. Soon, referring to “my honourable friend from” or “honourable Member of Parliament for” say Manchester was in vogue. They were not attaching human names to the adjective; the honourable referred to the place the man or woman represented. The reference was for a long time restricted to the floor of Parliament. When we copied, we made so much fetish of it that, now, some MPs – when they appear on radio or TV programmes – and you forget to address them as Honourable or Honourable Doctor so-so-and-so, they threaten to walk out.
But, that is not the main point: the point is that our MPs and appointees are enamored with the honourable tag; they better live as honourable people. We better do all it takes to hold them in place as honourable men and women. If they truly lead us to the political and economic kingdom we all yearn for, our presidents amply deserve to be referred to as Excellencies. If our ministers and other appointees execute their prescribed responsibilities creditably, we should have no problems at all curtsying and calling them Honourable. When they lead and don’t mislead, they must be recognized as our leaders in deed. But, until we get clarity on such vexed issues as the one looking like bribe-taking, you are thrown into a state of dilemma. You wonder: Are these people honourables or horribles?
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