More ‘blockheads’ entering Ghana’s Parliament - Economist

A renowned Economist and Publisher Dr. A. O. Abudu, has bemoaned the quality of persons who continue to enter the country’s parliament in recent times.

The situation he observed is becoming alarming considering the fact that most of them are not deserving of such positions but for political reasons have been mandated to represent their various constituencies.

He is perturbed that the country’s constitution is not also helping matters and therefore posited that something needs to be done to reverse this negative trend that is creeping into the democracy of the country.

“We don’t deserve the current constitution because it is one of the problems of this country. Per the constitution, anybody twenty years and above who is a registered voter can contest parliamentary elections in the country”, he stated.

According to him, how can persons who have not properly bargained themselves in life represent the country in important international negotiations; suggesting that there is the need for the bar to be raised for both parliamentary and presidential candidates rather than the age.

“As we stand, anybody could be president or MP if the person has attained the mandatory age, a registered voter and a citizen. Some of them because of their low level of education use parliament as a means to further their education”, he observed.

Speaking at an Ultimate Fm organized Public Forum in collaboration with the Students Representatives Council (SRC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on the topic “The leader Ghana deserves”, Dr Abudu indicated that poor leadership is impoverishing Ghana with corrupt practices.

He said Ghanaians hate sincere leaders further giving rise to corrupt leadership compounding the country’s problems.

“No public servant must be allowed to sit in one position at a particular place for a longer time. They must be changed after a brief period in order to curb corrupt practices especially within the public sectors where workers even demand for bribes before executing their officially mandated duties”