Majority Leader of the 7th Parliament of the 4th Republic and MP-elect for Suame, Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu says the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) will have a pretty torrid time in the early stages doing Parliamentary business following the huge loss of seats.
According to him, it is sad and unfortunate that some of the party’s best, knowledgeable, and experienced Legislators are not returning to the House.
At least 28 incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) legislators have lost their parliamentary seats in Monday’s elections.
Speaking in an interview with Host Bonohene Baffour Awuah on Ghana Kasa on Kasapa 102.5FM Thursday, Hon. Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu stated that one area that the NPP has lost heavily which he finds worrying is on the Finance Committee of Parliament.
“In Parliament, we do a lot of work on finance, agreements, loans and the preparation of budget etc. One person we’ve lost in the NPP which I find very unfortunate is Dr. Assibey Yeboah who was the Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee. He lost at the NPP primaries, do we have a good replacement? Someone we had in mind to fill that void was Prof. Gyan Baffour who is also hugely knowledgeable and experienced in Finance matters but he also lost the Wenchi seat and so he’s not coming back to Parliament. Another person who could have also stepped in is the former MP for Asikuma Odobeng Brakwa, Effah Baafi who also lost at the primaries. So seriously with the NPP fold in Parliament on the Finance side, we’ve lost. We now have to have a re-construct of that side of Parliament, who’s going to be where. That is on the Finance side.”
He added: “In terms of Legislation which is one of the core functions of Parliament, one person who in my absence helped a lot due to his knowledge was the MP for Offinso South Ben Abdellah Banda who also lost during the NPP primaries hence not coming back to Parliament. So in terms of Legislation, we did not help ourselves as a party. So going forward we need to reorganize and re-strategize in order for us to reposition the party in Parliament. Truth be told, from the initial stages the NPP will have things tough in parliament, but who knows, a star may emerge among our current set of MPs. Except that in Parliament, regardless of your potential, a first-timer can’t be made a Committee Chairman because he or she will have to learn the procedures to make him effective and efficient. But nonetheless, we have a new parliament and we must make the best out of what we have.”
