Financial Analyst and Social commentator, Sydney Casely Hayford has called irrelevant and unimportant, the existence of a legislative body in Ghana. He argues that the country would be much better off without a parliament which according to him is costing the nation much more than developing it.
Speaking at a summit on "The Economic and Political Rise of Africa”, Casely Hayford stated that he would out rightly break down the country’s existing parliament if he had the power to.
“The first thing I will do if I had the opportunity is to break down parliament. We don’t need it”, he said.
Justifying his argument, Casely Hayford said the body which exists to make laws for the country has been rendered useless. He explained that parliamentarians who have been elected by the people to serve as a voice on their behalf do absolutely nothing but make useless decisions and pass laws which they barely have adequate knowledge about.
“These people are sitting there, spending money like crazy, making stupid decisions, and passing stupid laws. They don’t read the papers that they are given, they don’t think through what the challenges are”, he stated.
The Members of Parliament, he maintained, prioritize their selfish interests at the peril of the nation’s development.
“All they can think of is, let’s pass this thing quickly, let’s go to Senchi Royal, let’s go and sit there and chill and come back and that’s the pattern”, he stated.
For him, the parliament house is merely as good as a tourist site which will serve the country better by bringing in income through tourism.
“Maybe if we break it down we are wasting money but maybe we can use it as a tourist attraction, we can say, this is what we used to do in the past, so come for a tour and then we should just poster it all so people can see.
On the contrary he said, all ten regions across the country should have a regional parliament each, their own law courts and ministries as well where decisions would be taken at the regional level; this he believes would be more effective compared to the existing parliament the country has.
“We should have regional parliaments, every region, we have 10 of them in Ghana, every region must have its own legal parliament, every region must have its own law courts, every region must have its ministries and down at that level, let the decisions be made as to where they want to go”, he said.
Mr. Casely Hayford was the Guest Speaker at a seminar themed; "The Economic and Political Rise of Africa”. The event saw several students from various tertiary institutions and corporate workers in attendance.
The seminar, organized by the Governance and Security Group of Africa (CSG Africa) came off on Saturday July 8 at the African Regent Hotel in Accra.
