Parliamentarians have the responsibility to be responsible

To govern a nation is a serious business, and to be elected into a public office is a privilege. To undertake duties associated with these offices, one must always be mindful of taking into consideration, the aspirations of the people on whose behalf these decisions are taken.

For a nation to develop and the people to enjoy enhanced socioeconomic advancement, those holding power in trust for the people must, at all times, ensure their decisions, in respect of public policies, perfectly mirror that of the people.

Contesting an election to be voted for, only to go and pursue a narrow, selfish and parochial course of a political entity, is backward, unpatriotic and unproductive.

Misguided statements

It is for this reason that pronouncements being made by newly-elected NDC parliamentarians, to a large extent, are misguided, unproductive, destructive and unpatriotic.

With the composition of the next parliament literally split in half, it has become the mantra of NDC members of the next august house that “we shall make the government ungovernable”.

A parliamentarian making such a pronouncement is very much tantamount to one slitting the nose to spite the face. The State is governed by three main arms which are the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.

As such, a deliberate act by an arm to impeding the progress of the unit called Ghana is an impediment to our national aspirations.

Core duties

As members of parliament, the core duty is to examine bills and contracts emanating from the Executive and other State Institutions, to ensure value for money so that ordinary taxpayers are not short-changed.

Scrutinizing these bills and contracts, when done with the interests of the voter in kind, then the purpose for which they queue in the sun to cast ballot to select parliamentarians would have been worthwhile.

Parliamentarians are therefore to examine bills and contracts, based on merit and value for money, and not just make needless noise because your numbers are at par with that of the president’s party.

When a bill, with policies to benefit the masses, is brought to parliament by the Executive and the NDC, for destructive parochial partisan political party interests, unreasonably oppose it, the good people of Ghana will surely know them for what they are, and will fittingly express their disgust at the polls when the opportunity avails itself.

Donald Trump’s NDAA

For the past four yours of Donald Trump administration, for example, Americans have witnessed the usual antagonistic shenanigans in the Congress but anytime the needs of ordinary Americans came into focus, both sides of the House came together to pass the necessary bills.

This was exhibited during the height of Covid-19 where trillions of dollars in relief packages were passed.

As we speak, the greater number of US Senators is backing Donald Trump’s dead-on-arrival fight to overturn the presidential results; yet, these very Republican Congressmen/women gave him a deadly blow only yesterday.

Donald Trump presented a 4,500-page Act on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), requesting $740b for its implementation. Section 230 of the Act has a clause which gives protection to big Tech Companies but Trump sought to remove. It also sought to fast-track withdrawal and increase in numbers of US troops out of Afghanistan.

In the end, the Act was defeated by 81 to 13, with most Republicans, led by the House Majority leader Mitch McConnell, actually leading the charge. This was done, for one major reason: security of America and its people.

Premature Troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan will pave the way for the Taliban and other terrorist groups to regroup, activate their networks across the Middle East and begin launching attacks both on Western interests both within the region and across the rest of the world.

And to forestall such development, the Senate put aside their party differences and voted for the interest of larger American picture.

“Here is what the Senate is focused on; completing the annual defense legislation that looks after our brave men and women who volunteer to wear the uniform. We have passed this legislation 59years in a row, and one way or the other, we are going to complete the 60th NDAA and pass it into a law before this Congress concludes on Sunday” said Mitch McConnell.

Quality assessment

With all these threats of chaos in the next parliament by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) legislators, it is imperative, on the part of the Executive, to build solid bridges and adopt impeccable negotiation strategies.

However, the bulk of the responsibility lies on the shoulders of those the President is going to offer the privilege to be part of his next administration.

And as Amit Kalantri said, “To assess the quality of thoughts of people, one must not listen to their words, but watch their actions”. As victory has come, the President, as expected, will be swarmed by bees of lobbyists, with all kinds of impeccable resumes and silky delivery of the Queen’s language.

That is where evaluation comes in. “Evaluating people is quite a daunting task and to properly evaluate a man, we should have a chance to observe his behaviour when he has nothing, and when he has everything” Eraldo Banovac.

The President, of course, cannon, on his own; do everything and therefore will appoint people to help him deliver on his social contract signed with the good people of this country.

And this time, these appointees must be well-whipped in line; and constantly evaluated to avoid needless controversies, avoidable distractions, optimum efficiency and unbridled conscientiousness.

To break the existing 8-year rotational convention since the inception of the 4th Republican dispensation, coupled with unimpressive performance in the 2020 elections, the NPP, incontestably, has the responsibility to do something completely out of the ordinary.

Sailing through 2024

The party must be able to sail through election-2024 with emphatic victory, in order to avoid the prevailing noise and chaos from sour losers. And to achieve this, and with cheeky ease:

Do not go grab an appointment if you do not have the disposition to entertain ordinary people.

Do not go occupy a party position if you are going to be accessible to only close associates.

Do not shut the door in the faces of party followers and open it to slay queens.

Do not welcome pretentious friendly journalists/celebrities with smiles; and ward-off party foot-soldiers with frowns.

Indeed, Nana Addo carried the entire New Patriotic Party (NPP) on his shoulders to chalk victory-2020 but he is not going to be on the ballot in 2024 so let us be smart.