Inside Parliament

OUT OF the total number of 200 members of Parliament only about one-fifth take active part in debates, while the rest battle to overcome their parliamentary shyness and inferiority complexes.

Perhaps what has necessitated this state of sad affairs is the seemingly wide disparity between the Ph.D holder and the holder of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) certificate.

Even though the 1992 Constitution allows the use of certain approved local languages as a means of communication and expression, those members who believe they cannot match the style of the fine political orators in Parliament shy away from taking the initiative to use their native tongues.

Ghana's Parliament is composed of professionals of varied dimensions, ranging from administrators to veterinary surgeons.

But on busy days when very important bills are to be deliberated in the national interest, as many as 30 members absent themselves without permission, while in most cases about the same number and even more are granted exits to attend to other national assignments, thus leaving the work to very few people to do.

The ubiquitous Chronicle can prove that most members who only take pride in being called "Honourable Parliamentarians" only go and sign their names in the attendance book and then leave for their private assignments.

This practice, without doubt, accounted for the inability of the government to extend the state of emergency in Dagbon on two occasions, as they could not obtain the required one hundred and one votes.

The Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Peter Ala Adjetey, deserves commendation for making himself a symbol of punctuality for late coming members to emulate.

That notwithstanding, only a handful of members from both sides take their seats before prayer time at exactly 10.00am which is administered by the Speaker himself.

Records have it that out of the 200 members, 35 are teachers, 33 are legal practitioners with only 17 women. (NPP has 9 women MPs as against 8 by the NDC.)

The Senior Minister, Hon. Joseph Henry Mensah, member for Sunyani East and Dominic A. B. Nitiwul, member of Bimbila are the oldest and youngest members at 75 years and 29 years respectively. Co-incidentally, both of them are in the ruling NPP.

Madam Gladys Asmah, member for Takoradi, also of the NPP, is clearly the mother of all the female MPs at 67.

The Eastern Region is the only region without a female representative, while the Western and Central regions have four each, followed by Greater Accra and Ashanti regions with two each.

The Volta, Northern, Brong Ahafo, Upper East and Upper West have one each.

It is expected that more women would be given the chance to contest on the various party tickets in other to increase their membership in the next Parliament.