Nobel Prize for Honourable Members of Ghana’s Parliament

The wisdom of our African ancestors is reflected in this proverb that says: “What the cat sees and quietly closes its eyes to, the dog would not even see its shadow before barking!”

Since Ghana embarked on its democratic dispensation of the 1992 Republican Constitution, I have been monitoring, observing and watching the attitude, behaviour and comportment of Members of Ghana’s Parliament.

Absence of Opposition in Parliament

In the first term of Parliament under the 1992 Constitution, which took off on January 7, 1993, there was no opposition in the House. Why? The then leading opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) boycotted the parliamentary elections after the presidential one had been run and wrote a book entitled ‘The Stolen Verdict’.

Consequently, the opposition outside Parliament christened the first term of National Democratic Congress One (NDC 1) (1993-1996) Parliament under Mr Justice D.F. Annan as Speaker ‘rubber stamp Parliament’. Period! At that time, it was the Ghanaian media that took the mantle of the opposition to put government in check.

In fact, the then Ghanaian media, both public and private, did a yeoman’s job. They were fair and balanced in their reports. They were analytical in their criticisms and were not abusive and insulting or unprofessional as is the order of the day with some media institutions today.

Opposition in Parliament

In 2000 when the NPP won the presidential and parliamentary elections and the NDC became the opposition in Parliament (2001-2008), the attitude, behaviour and comportment of some Minority members in the House became questionable. Sometimes, when President John Agyekum Kufuor went to deliver the State of the Nation Address in Parliament, he was booed and jeered.

The then Minority in Parliament did not accord due respect to the President of the republic. Thus, their attitude toward President Kufuor was condemned by all fair-minded people of society, both home and abroad.

Then in 2008, the NDC won the general election and President John Evans Atta Mills (of blessed memory) became President, and the opposition NPP in Parliament hit below the democratic belt. For three-and-a-half years or so (January 2009- July 2012) when President Mills ruled the country, majority of the minority NPP members in Parliament demonstrated little decorum towards the professor.

In fact, if in 50 years the audio/visual documentary of the attitude, behaviour and comportment of NPP parliamentarians towards President Mills are played back to their grandchildren, they would drop their jaws in disbelief. To the extent that in the very last State of the Nation Address presented by President Mills before his transition, he noted: “I knew I would be heckled, but I did not know it would be so gargantuan.”

But some other behaviour of the minority Members of Parliament towards President John Mahama, when he took over from the late President Mills, cannot be reprinted in an article of this nature. One can say that ‘dressing in red and black funeral cloths with some mind-boggling inscriptions, as well as flashing red cards in the face of a President in Parliament’ and so on were un-parliamentary, to say the least.

Even in our own traditional customs and norms, which some so-called civilised people may prefer to describe as primitive, no village chief, let alone a paramount chief, would be subjected to such ‘democratic’ humiliation in Parliament of all places. Of course, some other politicians elsewhere may exchange blows or smash their heads with chairs and tables in their legislature, we in Ghana have our cultural values that do not permit us to look our elders in the face and spit into their eyes, no matter their offences against us.

Commendation

It is against that backdrop that I wish to add my voice to that of many Ghanaians to commend, praise and salute our honourable Members of Parliament. The attitude, behaviour and comportment they put up on Thursday, February 26, 2015 when President Mahama presented this year’s State of the Nation address to the august House was commendable.

Their resolve to show respect to the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Ghana was outstanding despite our collective karma of ‘dum-sor-dum-sor syndrome!’

Our noble parliamentarians have proved that they are national role models to the youth of Ghana. If I had the power, I would have recommended that the entire Parliament of Ghana 2015 should be awarded, a Nobel Prize for Attitudinal and Behavioural Change for the 21st Century!

The writer works with the Information Services Department ISD in Accra.