News:
September 10, 2024
Member of Parliament for Chereponi Abdul-Razak Tahidu said it is about time the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) intensified educating the public on the core functions of Members of parliament to help reduce the pressure on MPs based on projects.
The lawmaker said MPs are not development agents but that is exactly how the public sees them and judge their performance based on that.
According to him once a while the lawmaker can take care of the social needs of the constituents but pointed out that sometimes as a sitting MP their opponents capitalize on the lack of proper understanding of the role of MPs to campaign against them. “They go round telling your constituents, you have not done the roads, you have not taken care of their water needs; so when you vote me as the MP I will address all these needs.”
“It’s the duty of the Assemblies to ensure that developmental projects are addressed in the districts and as MPs once a while since you have your colleagues as Minister, you can lobby to bring projects to the constituency”, the former DCE said in an interview.
As to whether this thorny issue can be addressed in Ghana, he noted that it will take a long time for Ghanaians and their constituents to come to that understanding that MPs are not development agents, rather those are the mandates of the Assemblies.
“Why do I say so, as a sitting MP my opponent goes to the ground and tell people I have not been able to construct the roads, you have not been able to do this or that which is not your obligation and that is what he is going to use to campaign to the delegates against you. You might try to explain to them but not everyone will understand that it’s not your mandate to construct roads and more especially when the illiteracy rate is high, it’s impossible to explain to them”.
And in an election year especially the two dominant parties, NPP and NDC should not go promising to construct roads and we should make it clear to the people that as an MP you do not construct roads.
Hon Abdul-Razak Tahidu further noted that the reason a number of MPs end up being one time lawmakers is because of unrealistic promises that were made during campaigns which they failed to fulfill.
“If, we get NCCE to do this work, that will help MPs. But without proper education, they will always look at us as developmental agents, he affirmed.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com