Is Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu a serious Majority leader?

I lost trust, confidence and respect for the man, whom I recently discovered to my wistful pleasure and amusement was some four years my senior at Okwawu-Nkwatia’s St. Peter’s Secondary School (PERSCO), when the then-Parliamentary Minority Leader, trailed like a brood by his much younger deputy, Mr. Dominic Nitiwul, stormed Up-North to the Upper-West constituency of Mr. Alban S. K. Bagbin, knowing full well that his own party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), had fielded a candidate in the same Nadowli-West Constituency for Election 2016. Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu’s rationale for crossing party lines to campaign for Mr. Bagbin was that the latter had acquired some invaluable legislative experience – and one could logically add, a fat paycheck and other comfortable perquisites – that could not be allowed to go to waste, in the event of him losing his seat in the National Democratic Congress’ parliamentary primary.

If, indeed, Mr. Bagbin has acquired a rich parliamentary or legislative experience, after sitting in the august House for some 20-plus years, that experience has yet to translate into anything either remarkable or meaningful for the qualitative development of our democratic parliamentary culture and the nation at large. I have also argued in several previous articles that in order to be legislatively effective, the New Patriotic Party would have to elect/select a parliamentary leader with a remarkable legal background. Mr. Mensah-Bonsu, who has been nicknamed by at least one journalist in the country that I know of as “Suame Methuselah,” has gotten so comfortable and secure on his parliamentary seat, and equally fat paycheck and perks, that he has become jaded and blasé. He has ceased working hard and effectively for the progress of his party. Instead, he seems to prefer to chum up with his “fellow Methuselahs” to jealously protect his Kumasi-Suame parliamentary seat and the perks that come with long stay in the House.

Else, how could he not have noticed beforehand that the 26-member Parliamentary Appointments Committee (PAC) was too large to effectively carry out its job of vetting some 36 ministers-designate in time for the Akufo-Addo Administration to assume reins of governance at full-throttle? (See “Appointments Committee Too Large – Majority Leader” Classfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 1/23/17). Indeed, it does not take a genius to come to the realization that a parliamentary vetting committee with a membership of more than 12 to 13 is a veritable recipe for disaster. I chose the latter ballpark figure because it is about the same size as a traditional panel of jurors.

The man clearly lacks foresight, else he would have been able to anticipate the unbearably snail-paced progress of the ministerial confirmation process and promptly demanded that the PAC’s membership ought not to exceed more than half of its current size. What is more, as the Parliamentary Majority Leader, Mr. Mensah-Bonsu had a key role in deciding who got to serve on the PAC or did not. And so to be bitterly griping after the fact clearly demonstrates the gross professional incompetence of the man. His profile also depicts the image of somebody who would be more effective in the private business sector than in government. And I sincerely don’t believe for one moment that his kind of legislative experience and/or expertise would be sorely missed, should Mr. Mensah-Bonsu either decide to resign from the House tomorrow or relieved of his seniority in the same.

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

January 26, 2017

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs