By Iddi Yire
Accra, July 5, GNA – Mr Edwin Nii Lante-Vanderpuye, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Odododiodio, has recounted on the floor of Parliament his experience in Nairobi during the youth protesters’ attack on the Kenyan Legislature.
Nii Lante-Vanderpuye, who was part of Ghana’s Parliamentary Delegation, which was in the Chamber of the Kenyan Parliament during a visit at the time of the youth protesters’ attack on the Legislature, urged the political class in Ghana to take lessons from the Kenya youth protest.
He made this remark in his contribution to a statement delivered on the floor of the House by Mr Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, the Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business, dubbed “Rising Impunity in Ghana – A Threat to Democracy: The Role of The Political Class”.
Nii Lante-Vanderpuye noted that he had a very wonderful experience in Nairobi with his colleague MPs from Ghana, and that it was not something to be happy about.
He said: “Sometimes people will do the wrong thing for the right reason, because when we push people to a level and they hit their zero-tolerance level, they definitely will react.
“Mr Speaker, let’s not be deceived, everybody wants peace, everybody will want to go by the right procedure to address issues but when people have a feeling and sense of judgement that they are not being given a fair and a level playing field, they definitely will react. It is a human reaction and there is nothing you can do about it.”
Recounting events leading to the Kenya youth protest, Nii Lante-Vanderpuye said: “Mr Speaker, we were in Kenya, two weeks prior to 25th of June, the youth and Gen Z have demonstrated, and demonstrated, Mr Speaker, what broke their heart was the fact that that Tuesday, in spite of all their protestations, the National Chamber and the Senate sat and passed the Finance Bill, that is what we call impunity.
“That is when we, the political class, decide not to listen to the feelings and the cries of the people. And they never thought they will endanger the lives of their people, but do you know what they said?
“They said they don’t care about the Executive, they care about us, their representatives who had disappointed them. Because they voted for us to hold the Executive in check. So, if the Executive has brought to us a Finance Bill that is going to scorch them further, that is going to strangulate them further and we, their representatives will fail to defend them, then they are taking their anger from the Executive to us.”
He said that was why it was important that the MPs value their position in the House.
“Mr Speaker, this statement is timely if first we members of this House will take a cue from what has happened in Kenya and understand that the people who vote for us are more important than sometimes the political decisions we take,” he stated.
He added: “That we have a Bill before us, that the people outside, who voted for us are not happy with but because of political convenience we are ready to even break heads to let it go through against the will of the people. They will react, because they will soon lose confidence in our ability to defend their interest.”
Mr Nii Lante-Vanderpuye said: “Mr Speaker, we should not be deceived, we can preach and preach peace all the time but when people think that the impunity of the political class is beyond their endurances, they will definitely react.
“Today as we sit here the perception out there is that the Executive is corrupt, the judiciary has become a political prong and we the Legislature are selfish and uncaring, and so they have low expectations in our ability to fight for them and that is a danger.”
He said if their Leader (Mr Afenyo-Markin) accepted that the political class had closed their eyes to the frustrations of the majority of the people because of their selfish interest, it was important that even though violence was not something they cherished; saying, “we abhor it and we don’t want it to ever happen, it is a wake up call to all of us to change the way we do things in this country.”
He said whether the Executive, the Legislature or the Judiciary, they must take the Christian virtue of being born again and know what they needed to do to meet the aspirations of the ordinary person.
GNA