Nobody is into politics as a 'Father Christmas' - Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu

The Minority leader and Member of Parliament for Suame Constituency, Hon Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has blamed the falling standards of our Parliament at the doorstep of the various Political Parties.

Speaking on Daybreak Kapital with host Kombian Somtuaka,the ace legislator said “I will blame the Political Parties..You see the Modus of selecting Parliamentary candidates and I’m not attacking the NDC or NPP alone almost all the Parties there is nowhere in this world where at the end of tenure of Parliament the floodgates are opened for all comers to come and contest sitting members of Parliament. It does not exist anywhere which is why increasingly we are monetizing our politics.

“Even the intellectual argument respectfully… I’m being very candid… we will have to put some people in some scale to measure them but when it becomes an all comers game its like if we will want to be frank to ourselves we know what happens in various political parties people coming from nowhere paying monies and then they get selected.

He accused Political Parties of monetizing the process of selecting persons who enter Parliament and for that matter are Pre-occupied with ways of recouping what they lost during primaries.

“They come to Parliament having spent so much..Nobody is into Politics as a father Christmas. If the person spends so much and he comes to Parliament then see that is what is going on as a colleague once told me as for me I will not sit here and be doing delete and insert[Parliamentary terminology referring to deleting and inserting clauses]only what is this?. I have spent so much my business is gone bankrupt. I must look for money so people come there and they are looking for money to pay back 1.to pay back what money they lost or spent during their own internal primaries 2.to reposition themselves for the next battle.

“So people have other ideas other than staying in the chamber and doing Parliamentary work. The business of legislation and overseeing the executive is an oversight responsibility which you need time but people don’t have time. As I’m saying we are monetizing our politics and If we are not careful Parliament will be populated by not too far from now by moneybags and not people with the competence to do the work” the legislator fingered Political Parties.

Hon Kyei Mensah Bonsu said when he entered Parliament in 1997, he had J.H Mensah as the Minority leader but he painstakingly followed and perused the Constitution and Parliament’s standing orders.

“So I burdened myself with the task to pour through the constitution and our rules of procedure the standing orders.I decided then to follow every piece of legislation/bill that came before us and in 1997 when we went I was most involved from the minority side in most of the bills that we did.I followed keenly because I saw that was going to be my life and I decided to learn.”

The Suame MP said that these days people enter Parliament with all sorts of ambitions to the detriment of their Parliamentary duties but was also quick to hit back at the Political Parties about the means of selecting Parliamentary candidates in various parties.