MPs have no business boycotting parliament; NDC MPs should not be paid - Kwame Pianim

Renowned Ghanaian economist, Kwame Pianim has hit out at Members of Parliament on the Minority side over the decision to boycott parliamentary sitting.

In the last few weeks, the Minority MPs have missed three Parliamentary sittings to go to court to support colleagues being trialed by the state on various charges.

Speaking to TV3, Kwame Pianim kicked against the move, insisting that MPs have no business boycotting Parliament.

According to him, any MP who decides to boycott parliament should lose their allowance.

“A parliamentarian has no business to boycott parliament. If they boycott parliament their allowances should be taken off,” Kwame Pianim argued.

The renowned economist continued, “Parliament is young, there is a tendency now to put a lot of burden on the fledgling judiciary which is not fair.”

The Parliamentary boycott has not only been condemned by the Majority in Parliament but by a lot of Ghanaians.

The argument is that MPs are sent to Parliament to work for the people but not to show solidarity with colleagues in court.

Although the boycott is affecting the business of parliament, the Minority insists that it will not stop until the state discontinues its day-to-day trial of Assin North MP, James Gyakye Quayson.

“It’s a complete boycott. Yes, we are boycotting sitting anytime. We are a group, we are caucus, and if you sit unconcerned for the government to pick your members one by one and persecute them in the way that we are seeing them doing to our colleague honorable Quayson, they’ll come after everyone of you,” Minority Leader Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson stressed in an interview with Joy News.