IF you are yearning to have a long political career in Ghana, the last place anyone should dream of is Parliament because in our part of the globe, life as a Member of Parliament (MP) is usually a short-lived stint).
This is partly because of unfulfilled promises made by some MPs during campaign periods and sheer pettiness on the part of constituents and some party people simply because anyone who gets to Parliament gets a brand new 4X4 vehicle, a four-year rent advance and other incentives which make life better for an MP.
A careful observation of an MP’s life during the 25 years of uninterrupted service of the August House under the Fourth Republic, one is tempted to believe that life as a legislator seems to be a place more for short-term apprenticeships stint rather than long-term career development. The 7th Parliament of the Fourth Republic was inaugurated on midnight of January 7, 2017 where all the 275 MPs took their oath of allegiance and secrecy at a short but colourful ceremony on the floor of the House.
My direct involvement in running a parliamentary campaign right from the party’s primary to that of the general elections have shown that it cost one a fortune to get elected into Parliament. Sadly, in their quest to become MPs, some people go to the extent of selling their properties and as well as going for huge bank loans to finance their campaigns.
Some of them- mostly the first timers- run into huge debts during which they are often not able to finish paying before the next elections where majority of them lose their seats.
Ghana’s Parliament is gaining ‘notoriety’ for being the only place where members, no matter how revered one might be in the area of parliamentary work, are regularly chucked out callously. The membership of the house seems to get renewed comprehensively at every four years. When this current democratic dispensation (Fourth Republic) started some 24 years ago (from January 7, 1993) the major opposition party then— the New Patriotic Party (NPP)—which won the 2000 and 2004 elections and currently ruling party, boycotted the first parliamentary elections that ushered in the Fourth Republic.
For instance, of the first batch of 61 elected members of NPP who entered Parliament in 1997, there is only one left in the 7th Parliament who is in the person of Hon. Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, who has risen through the ranks to become the current Majority Leader.
In his address on the floor of the House on 7th January, 2017 Hon. Mensah-Bonsu bemoaned the high attrition rate in the House. With a pensive smile, he lamented: “I am the lone ranger in my party’s caucus from the 1997-2001 stock. Just two remain in the 2001-2005 stock. For the 2005-2009 groups, we have 20 remaining.”
On the part of the current opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) the situation is calamitous. For example, out of the 189 members who entered the legislative House in January 1993, only one has survived till today which is in the person of Hon. Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, MP for Nadowli West constituency in the Upper West Region.
Due to his experience and in-depth knowledge in parliamentary issues, Hon. Bagbin has been elected to the position of Second Deputy Speaker. In a similar way, the Nadowli West law-maker on a number of occasions trumpeted the need to find a way to maintain some experience hands in the House.
For instance, the NDC in the 2016 general elections lost 80 seats and out of that huge number, 42 were one-term members, which affirms the assertion that ”life as a legislator in Parliament seems to be a place more for short-term apprenticeships stint rather than a long term career development one.”
The 7th Parliament has 182 new entrants in the 275-member chamber. Of the 93 continuing members, not many can be described as “old hands.”
The high attrition rate has affected Parliament in so many ways that currently there are second term MPs, who are occupying some high positions, which obviously should have been occupied by at least a third term or fourth term members.
In the course of my research into why the high attrition rate, there were some striking issues that emerged. One was the high broken campaign promises, monetisation and the other sheer pettiness on the part of some constituents and party members.
It emerged during my interaction with a cross-section of Ghanaians that most of the MPs deliberately made many unrealistic promises to woo unsuspecting voters and when such promises were not met in the four-year term, constituents become angry and vote against them in the subsequent polls. Many MPs are seen and heard on various campaign platforms making huge promises from construction of school blocks, roads, hospitals, job opportunities among others.
However, some of these promises become mirage after they had won their seats. This certainly affects the chances of such MPs in the next election when they call for the renewal of their mandate. Again, being an MP in our part of the world means you wake up each morning to a long queue of constituents in your house which at times starts as early as 5:00 am. All these people come with different personal problems and they all expect the MP to instantly solve them.
Some of them want money to pay school fees, hospital bills, some want jobs for themselves or for their children or both, and others come for capital to start business, can you imagine? But hey, those who have trifling pocket and so could not meet these sky-rocketing demands suffer the obvious consequences.
Pettiness on the part of some constituents and party activists is one of the major contributing factors to the increasingly high attrition rate in Ghana’s Parliament. It is an undeniable fact that majority of the people who make it into our Parliament still come from the teaching profession. But currently there are a sizeable number of lawyers, bankers and doctors making up the 275 House.
Knowing the living standard of teachers in the country, most people become envious of MPs when they see them driving 4×4 vehicles, huge rent allowance and other benefits. Some people also kick out their MPs at the next elections just because the MPs’ vehicle drove past them and did not stop to wave or offer them a ride.
After my interaction with some key stakeholders, I believe Parliament as an institution has a lot of public education to do, especially in the areas of roles and duties of an MP.
It is encouraging that there are voices being raised today about the high attrition rate of the membership of the House and the need for Ghanaians to build institutional memory in our Parliament. But sincerely speaking, even though there are so many people raising concerns about the high attrition rate, my instinct tells me that all these powerful voices will disappear once the political party primary season starts and the jostling begins to find candidates for the parliamentary elections.
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