News:
August 29, 2011
Outspoken NPP Member of Parliament for Assin North, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, says some of his colleague MPs are “stooges” who rush into approving decisions taken by “the president and his few wise men” at the expense of their constituents.
“With all due respect to everybody, we behave like stooges, stooges in the sense that…parliamentarians are being whipped into giving their approval to any decision taken by the President, his Vice, Cabinet and some few wise men who are ministers,” he said.
To him, it was rather unfortunate that parliamentarians tend to cede to any meaningless decision taken by their respective parties even though they know the outcome of the decision would not benefit the very constituent they represent.
In an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem programme, the Assin North MP posited that because of his forthrightness, members from his own party sometimes oftentimes disagree with him, adding that the country needs politicians who believe in “Ghana First” and not “party first”.
“We need politicians who have already established themselves and cannot be enticed with triflings and are not easily intimidated; quality Parliamentarians who can stand on their feet and condemn issues that are not be in the best interest of the country…Most of them want ministerial appointments so would vote yeah…yeah because the president and his vice have put forward a proposal,” he added.
Calling for a new structure that entirely de-links the Executive from the Legislature; he stated that left to him alone, no parliamentarian should be made to serve as a minister. Citing his own experience as an example, the CEO of Kencity Media shockingly revealed that during ex-president Kufuor’s tenure, the NPP openly sabotaged Parliamentarians who strongly voiced out their views against the party.
“As at now, two thirds of parliamentarians are part of the executive and have been made ministers…I don’t want to mention names, but if you could recall, anybody who refused to be intimidated during the NPP tenure, the party made sure they sabotaged him to lose in the elections. Had it not been by my own effort and the fact that I had resources of my own to campaign, I could have been a victim,” he disclosed.
He believes this and other factors have turned parliamentarians into ‘stooges’.
When host of the show, Adakabre Frimpong Manso, drew his attention to the fact that the word ‘stooge’ might be too derogatory a description for Parliamentarians, the NPP MP, who said he was prepared to retract, however stressed that Members of Parliament have been kowtowing to the whims and caprices of the government of the day for far too long answering “Yes, Sir, Yes, Sir” to every proposal from the Executive.
Source: Peacefmonline.com