News:
October 24, 2012
The Member of Parliament for Dormaa West, Kweku Agyemang Manu has launched a scathing attack on the Publisher of the Africa Watch Magazine Steve Mallory, accusing him of engaging in mischief intended to scuttle the electoral fortunes of some Members of Parliament.
He said deliberately publishing a supposed exercise conducted on MPs which graded the performance of the country’s legislators a little over a month to the December elections is deeply worrying and must be condemned.
The Africa Watch Magazine since 2010 has been grading Ghana’s legislators and ministers with the 2011 exercise generating uproar especially among the MPs who were graded very low, contesting the results and questioning the criteria that were used.
As many as thirty-seven parliamentarians scored “F” in the Africawatch Magazine’s Political Performance Index (PPI) for 2012.
Some legislators such as outspoken NPP MP Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, Seth Adjei Baah and Irene Naa Torshie were all graded “F” for their performances in parliament. Sheikh I.C. Quaye did not improve his past grading as he scored another “F”.
The MP for Bawku Central, Adamu Sakande who is currently serving a two year jail term was graded “F” whereas MP for Jomoro Samia Yaba Nkrumah got a C+ for her performance.
However speaking on Okay FM on Wednesday, Hon. Kweku Agyemang Manu emphasized the need for the publisher of the magazine to come out clear on how the assessment was done as a lot is involved in the work of an MP.
“The work of an MP is not only talking on the floor of the House for you to be capture on radio or TV, there are other duties such as committee work, visiting the constituencies to listen to the concerns of your people and also developing the area, the publisher of the magazine should tell us if graded the MPs based on all these facts’’ he remarked.
Hon. Agyemang Manu noted that this grading exercise of MPs might have negative impact on some of the legislators who were graded with poor marks as their competitors who are up to mischief could use the results against them.
Kwadwo Anim/Ghanamps.gov.gh