Accra, Feb 25, GNA – Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr., General Secretary of the Socialist Movement of Ghana, says the time for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to build consensus for the country’s development is now.
The veteran journalist noted that the current composition of the House-137 NPP Members of Parliament (MPs) and 137 NDCs MPs [and an independent candidate] was evident that the time of “winner takes it all” was far gone.
At an event to commemorate the 56 years of the overthrow of the country’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, he said the polarisation in Parliament could no longer suffice Ghana’s current dispensation.
As such, it had become necessary for both sides of the House of Legislation to bury their political differences and find ways of working and thinking together to foster unity among themselves to propel the business of the House for national development.
Mr Pratt said: “Today in Ghana, our country is badly polarised and this polarisation finds expression in our Parliament. The reality today is simply that the winner takes it all politics cannot work in our circumstance.”
He added that: “This Minority-Majority mentality is a thing of the past. You must find ways of thinking and working together.”
The call comes amid complaint by the Majority that the MP for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo, was “sabotaging” the Party, and buttressed earlier by Professor Justice Nyigmah Bawole, Governance Expert and Prof Peter Quartey, Economist, when the Minority rejected the 2022 budget.
The action by the Minority was said to be due the introduction of the 1.75 percent Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy), and silence of the budget on the tidal waves that hit Keta in the Volta Region.
Mr Pratt said: “Because of this fixation of Majority and Minority, look at how much we spent on one meeting of Parliament, having private jets for Parliamentarians outside the country to come and vote. Look at how much we’re told Parliamentarians were paid just to show up in Parliament. It is crazy, it is not working.”
He said: “Instead of spending billions getting Parliamentarians into Parliament House to vote and so on, why can’t we say to ourselves that this is the state of our national economy, this is where we are, so what do you think?”
On the state of the Ghanaian economy, he bemoaned that despite the availability of natural and human resources, many Ghanaians struggled to have decent accommodation, food with fuel price on the rise, while unemployment skyrocketed.
He stated that borrowing, the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy), as well as support from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) could not help the country.
He said: “The way out is that we must begin to think outside the box, and look at the resources we have and how we may exploit those resources to improve lives, and think as Nkrumah did.”
Dr Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown by the Ghanaian Army and Police on February 24, 1966.
GNA