There is no single person with sense in parliament - Odike

Mr Akwasi Addai Odike, a two-time failed Presidential Candidate of the United Front Party (UFP), has described Ghanaian lawmakers as ‘senseless’ people who have constantly refused to put their senses into good use when they are on the floor of parliament.

An audio obtained by MyNewsGh.com from Angel FM which we have taken time to listen and transcribe word-for-word saw the former UFP flagbearer dare the Privileges Committee of Parliament when host Alhaji Tanko cautioned him to watch his language.

“If a parliamentarian is sensible in his community when he or she gets to the house of the legislature he compromises his or her senses on decisions the house makes turning parliament into a rubber stamp”, he claimed on Kumasi-based Angel Fm MyNewsGh.com monitored.

Asked by the host  Alhaji Tanko to be civil in his utterances about the “Honourables ” in view of the fact he could be dragged to the privileges committee for denigrating the reputation of the country’s lawmakers, the businessman said he is not a coward.

“What Committee… Master let us do proper analysis… We are  not cowards speaking? I am saying that if they have senses when they get to parliament they compromise their senses to the detriment of the citizenry. We are not in Ghana today”, he reiterated his earlier claims saying he is unfazed.

His justification is that the MPs irrespective of their political affiliation are swift in backing motions that are in their collective interest rather than what will benefit Ghanaians.

“If cash is coming to parliamentarians, NDC and NPP MPs will all come together and endorse it… When a decision will affect the entire country they will take partisan lines. This is what is going on. If they propose buying Landcruisers for them who will object to it saying the money belongs to the state? When the president takes a motion to parliament, you will not see a single MP from the minority side supporting it”, he stressed.

He described Ghana’s parliament as a rubber stamp without the needed checks and balances to make it effective to demand accountability on behalf of voters at the various constituencies who mandated the MPs to represent them.

On how  parliament can function effectively, he said “when we take the bold decision to elect an executive president whose party has no seat in the legislature as was done in the Republic of Benin to give effect to the Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances”