[ 2016-11-12 ]

Nobody is into politics as a 'Father Christmas' - Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu
The Minority leader and Member of Parliament for
Suame Constituency, Hon Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has
blamed the falling standards of our Parliament at
the doorstep of the various Political Parties.

Speaking on Daybreak Kapital with host Kombian
Somtuaka,the ace legislator said “I will blame
the Political Parties..You see the Modus of
selecting Parliamentary candidates and I’m not
attacking the NDC or NPP alone almost all the
Parties there is nowhere in this world where at
the end of tenure of Parliament the floodgates are
opened for all comers to come and contest sitting
members of Parliament. It does not exist anywhere
which is why increasingly we are monetizing our
politics.

“Even the intellectual argument respectfully…
I’m being very candid… we will have to put
some people in some scale to measure them but when
it becomes an all comers game its like if we will
want to be frank to ourselves we know what happens
in various political parties people coming from
nowhere paying monies and then they get selected.

He accused Political Parties of monetizing the
process of selecting persons who enter Parliament
and for that matter are Pre-occupied with ways of
recouping what they lost during primaries.

“They come to Parliament having spent so
much..Nobody is into Politics as a father
Christmas. If the person spends so much and he
comes to Parliament then see that is what is going
on as a colleague once told me as for me I will
not sit here and be doing delete and
insert[Parliamentary terminology referring to
deleting and inserting clauses]only what is this?.
I have spent so much my business is gone bankrupt.
I must look for money so people come there and
they are looking for money to pay back 1.to pay
back what money they lost or spent during their
own internal primaries 2.to reposition themselves
for the next battle.

“So people have other ideas other than staying
in the chamber and doing Parliamentary work. The
business of legislation and overseeing the
executive is an oversight responsibility which you
need time but people don’t have time. As I’m
saying we are monetizing our politics and If we
are not careful Parliament will be populated by
not too far from now by moneybags and not people
with the competence to do the work” the
legislator fingered Political Parties.

Hon Kyei Mensah Bonsu said when he entered
Parliament in 1997, he had J.H Mensah as the
Minority leader but he painstakingly followed and
perused the Constitution and Parliament’s
standing orders.

“So I burdened myself with the task to pour
through the constitution and our rules of
procedure the standing orders.I decided then to
follow every piece of legislation/bill that came
before us and in 1997 when we went I was most
involved from the minority side in most of the
bills that we did.I followed keenly because I saw
that was going to be my life and I decided to
learn.”

The Suame MP said that these days people enter
Parliament with all sorts of ambitions to the
detriment of their Parliamentary duties but was
also quick to hit back at the Political Parties
about the means of selecting Parliamentary
candidates in various parties.

Source - Kapitalfm

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