The National Youth Leader of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP,) Divine Nkrumah, has called on the youth to wake-up from their slumber and question the propriety of paying GHC50,000.00 rent allowance for each of the two hundred and seventy-five (275) Members of Parliament (MPs.)
By simple arithmetic, the total rent allowance for all 275 MPs sum up to GHC13,750,000, he pointed out, adding that the expenditure is a “recklessness [that] must stop now.”
“Like many Ghanaians, I am outraged and angry about news of our so-called honourable men and woman of Parliament allotting to themselves GHC50,000 [each] as rent allowance. This news, particularly the amount, is offensive and awfully tough to talk about politely,” Nkrumah said.
Speaking at the general meeting of the Eastern Region Tertiary Students’ Union, in Koforidua recently,, the worried youth leader condemned in no uncertain terms the decision of paying that ‘gargantuan’ money to the MPs, and wondered which of “our MPs is so unwise as to want to spend GH¢50,000.00 of his hard earned money on rent.”
“So if you are unwilling or unable to pay such a colossal sum to rent a house from your own pocket, why would you want the poor Ghanaian hustling through traffic in a ‘trosky’ to do ‘by-day work’ at Tema Newtown or my sister-in-law selling tomatoes at Agbogbloshie to pay for you? Why oh why?” he lamented.
Mr. Nkrumah further questioned the letter and spirit of the policy that gives MPs rent allowance and increases it every four years.
He recalled that in 2009, each MP was given GHC30,000.00; this year the tax payer is paying GHC50,000.00. Obviously by 2017 we will be pushed to pay GHC70,000 … For how long are we going to waste State resources in this manner?” he queried.
Mr. Nkrumah said to whom much is given, much is expected asking that could not our MPs after receiving these huge sums over the years reason up a bit to realise that there is a better way of handling this issue than what is currently being practiced?
According to the PPP youth organizer, his checks with some real estate agencies in Accra reveal that a two-bedroom house in and around Accra costs about * GHC55, 000.* “Any well-meaning Ghanaian would prefer the State uses the total amount to put up apartments for the use of Ghana’s MPs. That way when an MP completes his/her term, he/she packs his/her bag and baggage and vacates the apartment, leaving it for the next MP that is coming in. That is what basic knowledge instructs,” he affirmed.
He called on “people who would want to defend this rent policy,” to realise that “the amount is as big an issue as its repetitiveness every four years is annoying... What is mind-boggling is the seeming lack of innovativeness in solving this problem of accommodation for MPs.”
He called on lawmakers, particularly the executive, to show Ghanaians some respect saying: “We do not deserve this kind of shabby treatment, this wickedness, this recklessness, this senselessness, selfishness and greed.”
He prophesied that if the executive and MPs continue handling State resources in that shabby manner, it would not be long before some ordinary Ghanaians, inspired by devils, will “chase those *crazy bald heads* out of town.”
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