NPP Parliamentary Primaries – A Stronger Quest For Second Chamber Parliament

Internal elections conducted by The New Patriotic Party to elect prospective candidates to contest the 2016 general election for membership to the Parliament of Ghana is democratically eerie and a big blow to the foundation of Ghana’s democratic credentials. It goes on to inform democratic loving people of Ghana that, all is not well with our democratic system and until we create a Second Chamber Parliament we are in for trouble.

The rejection of 24 sitting New Patriotic Party Members of Parliament by the electors of the New Patriotic Party that they should not contest on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party come general election 2016, informs us that, for the many years these Members Of Parliament have been in office, they have not proved their worth or the electors do not understand the works and duties of the Members of Parliament or intra party factionalism have gripped the NPP and its electors have taken sides, which so affected some sitting Members of Parliament of the New Patriotic Party.

To be able to promote and defend shrewdly the ideals of one’s political party is to present very smart, experienced negotiators with profound oratory and leadership skills, presenters who could sway and bring to bear on other members of presumptive Committee of Parliament the best practices to fore and convince the committee that, your views shall bring solemn peace and progress for the people of Ghana.

The justifiable resounding truth is, the people of Ghana suffered the brut consequence as a result of electoral mechanism designed to keep Members of Parliament wild awake to satisfy the rapacious desire of electorates who are privileged to appoint members of their own to stand national parliamentary electoral competition.

Privileged as the office of Members of Parliament of Ghana are, the electoral system with which we clear all of them at a go and to reinstate those we desire at a time and think we are practising democracy is detrimental to the growth of Ghana’s parliamentary democracy and the work of Government of Ghana as well.

Much as we endure to practice democratic dispensation at the will of the people, it is incongruous to abuse experience in the knack of legislation more so that Ghana has only one Chamber Parliament. Legislation making is the foundation and hub of policy formulations and to flip flop with legislation makers is to abuse the fundamentals of principled democratic benefits that we desire.

Under Article 35.7 of the 1992 constitution perpetual succession of programmes shall be definite as it states inter alia “As far as practicable, a government shall continue to execute projects and programmes commenced by previous government”.

To maintain consistent democratic growth and earn the benefits of change of government, Ghana requires a Standby Parliament that does not get lost with a rejected political party government. Ghana needs an institution of state to continue to protect the integrity of an ongoing legislation, a legislation that has passed the rudimentary stages of law processing by the August Parliament terms of reference on law processing. Mother Ghana needs custodians of progressive growth, servers of the law and interest of land, confidants of state secrecy for perpetual stability, marshals of the ego of the state of Ghana to guide incoming governments of the nation’s hotspot and lucid parts thereof as successive political party governments come and go. That State of Ghana shall not sting.

The Second chamber parliament must be a democratic institution elected. Legislative progression must not be fated in the hands of a state agency like the Protocol department of the National Security Agency or the National Bureau of investigation. It must be ordained in the hands of an extended parliament called the Second Chamber Parliament.

Since the inception of the constitution 1992, there has been two successive governments. The National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party. The two main rival political parties that succeeded each other have different background as far as the constitution 1992 is concerned. The leadership of the parties have different policy views and extraction and they have remained antagonistic of each and other’s views till date.

Former President Kuffour won the Presidency with the New Patriotic Party winning the Majority in Parliament in his 2 term seasons. A comeback of the National Democratic Party under President Mills also won with the Majority of Members of Parliament. President John Dramani Mahama contested the general election and won with his party having won majority Members of Parliament.

The adage, new king new law becomes the isometrics of the Parliament of Ghana under new leadership and new Executive President who appoints majority of his ministers from the Parliament of Ghana. As a matter of fact what we have refused to acknowledge is that, government of different leadership shall come and go but laws enacted by the parliament of Ghana shall remain binding on the people of Ghana irrespective of which government made the laws. Much as the primary duty of the Parliament of Ghana under Article 93(2) of the constitution is legislation making, the people of Ghana loss enormous deals of legislation that goes halfway into conclusion and gets abandoned because of change of government.

There is no doubt most democracies of the world preferred Dual Chamber Parliament to Unicameral Legislature for sustainability, stability, reliability, coherence, preservation of steadiness, dazzling, efficiency and quality decision making laws.

It is interesting to note that, duties of the Members of Parliament under the 1992 constitution stretches from law making (Article 93.2)oversight function over the executive arm of government (Article 103.3) power of the purse of the state including but not limited to authorizing the taking in or giving out loans (Article 181), under Article 174 she has the power to waiver, exempt or variation of taxes, monitor public expenses, under Article 178 monitors public fund, Monitoring the country’s foreign exchange receipts and payments or transfers (article 184), Appointing an auditor to audit and report on the accounts of the Auditor-General’s office (article 187[15]) and all these exercise are conducted under the committees of the parliament of Ghana where experience is key and very instrumental to the success of the such activities.

Much as perpetual succession of governments is fundamental in democratic process, policies commenced by a given parliament must not cease half way as a result of change of government irrespective of how prejudiced Political Party “A” in government is about Political Party “B” who succeeds it.

A change of government must not stop exercises started by parliament especially international business transaction that an existing parliament commences.

It is interesting to make mention of the Congress of the United States of America. Of voting age population of two hundred and thirty five million, two hundred and forty eight thousand population, the United States congress is made up of 435 house of representative and 100 senators. The House of Representatives is the popular house and members are elected every two (2) years under Article I section 2 of the Unites States constitution whereas the Senate under Article I section 3 of the United States constitution, is the Upper Chamber representing the states that makes up the United States. A senator’s term of office is six years.

The composition of the house membership at the start of senatorial sittings in 1787 was divided into three groupings immediately as they were assembled. The Seats of the Senators of the first class was vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second Class at the expiration of the fourth Year and of the third Class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one third of the Senators may be elected by the electorates every second year. It had continued till date to preserve and protect the dignity and supervisions of laws that emanates from the House of Representatives.

On the home front here in Ghana, judgment debts has become rampant. It has taken large junk of the nation’s hard earned currency because hasty, unwise and proscriptive laws had the chances to pass the house sittings and succeeding governments’ have boycotted legislations and evolving programmes previous governments had started.

The power and authority of two powerful institutions of state merged together by virtue of Article 78.1, of the constitution 1992 cannot be underestimated. Each shall need the other in case covetous and scrupulous decisions are considered for the private benefits of actors within the institutions. They only way to salvage the situation against private gain is to establish an autonomous integrity organization, independent of the two institution with oversight functions on the two, to protect the interest of the state of Ghana.

In the interest to protect the nation against voracious financial malpractice by principal political actors minding Ghana’s finance, mother Ghana requires creating a Second Chamber Parliament and endowed it with the powers the Americans endowed their senate with to guide against hasty, proscriptive and unwise laws and to protect the future of mother Ghana or establish the House of Lords akin to the United Kingdom House of Lords with the same or similar operation mandate.

Of the fifty states that sums up the United States of America, 49 of them have “localized” their legislatures into Dual Chamber Parliament- House of Representatives and the Senates. With the authoritative mother of All Congress, the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.

Safe Democracy Ghana advocates composition of a Second Chamber Parliament to be made up of representatives each of the organizations that sums up the National Peace Council, professional bodies within and without Ghana Trade Union Congress and Ghana Labour Organization, two representatives from each Regional House Of Chiefs of which one shall be female and then one representative each of retired Chief of Defence Staff, Inspectors General of Police and a Retired Chief Justice.

We urge the NCCE to broadcast, communicate and educate the citizens of mother Ghana the economic essence of government and the works and duties of the Parliament of Ghana.

Thank you very sincerely
Munir Saani
Safe Democracy Ghana.