The Ghana Report, an independent news website, has just compiled and released a ranking of Members of Parliament based on how often they spoke in parliament. The website also compared the performance of all first term MPs. In this seventh parliament of Ghana’s fourth republic, Sekond-Takoradi’s delegation to the august house had among them two first term MPs. The comparison is sobering.
The young Andrew Egyapa Mercer, our neighbour from Sekondi, was top of the entire class with a total of 108 contributions on the floor of the house, more than any other first-termer in the house. The trained lawyer has been extremely vocal in and outside of parliament and is offering spirited representation of his constituency and his party.
*But what about our dear Kwesimintsim?*
Reader, it is not good. Honourable Joseph Mensah was 57th out of 123 first term MPs, speaking only seven times in the nearly four years he has been there! It is no wonder then that when you look around Kwesimintsim, you see so many of our problems unattended to. Look at the state of our roads, our schools and our health facilities. Look at the unemployment. Which big projects have we benefited from in the last four years? It is because the person we sent to speak for us is not talking. So how can we get what we need and deserve.
It is sadder still when we consider where we came from. Whatever other faults they may have had, can you imagine our previous representatives performing so poorly in an assessment of this nature? Do you remember when Kwesimintsim had a cabinet minister making its case? Do you remember how that felt? Today, we cannot even boast of a committee chair. Over in Sekondi, their first-term MP is the vice chairman of the influential Communications committee.
Some might say that our MP might be doing his work at committee level. Unfortunately, there is no comfort there. Every Member of Parliament has to be on a committee. Honourable Joe Mensah is on two committees – Employment, Social Welfare and State Enterprises Committee and Members Holding Offices of Profit Committee. If he was doing great work in the committee on EMPLOYMENT maybe so many of us would not be hungry for EMPLOYMENT.
The fact we cannot escape is that we have been sent back several years. With the greatest respect to him, our MP is not up to the task. He has done his best but his best is not the best for Kwesimintsim. Kwesimintsim has had much better before and we want that back.
*And for those who still insist that it’s only his first term, I have three words for you: Andrew Egyapa Mercer.*
Badaru Askanda (AKA Maka Maka)
19th May 2020
