Our Honourable House of Honourables

By Frederick Danso Abeam

Ghana is becoming a stage where actors and actresses are displaying their skills in the art of drama, tragedy and poetic excellence. We have on stage a certain Woyome, who is taking the nation for a ride while we wait for the court to decide on his fate, and the fate of the whole nation. We also had folks of some small town who agreed that a young military officer had outlived his usefulness on earth, and so they quickly organised a ruthless send-off for him to the life hereafter. But when God spoke through a man of God and prophesised their doom, they chose to condemn God's Word and reminded the Old Man Upstairs that they were not the only ones with this pastime.

Then came a certain Charlotte who crossed swords with her "Charloteers", and they came on the scene accusing and counter-accusing each other in the same style, manner and fashion of one of the favourite children's game - "Who stole the Cookie, from the Cookie pot?" And all of Ghana is anticipating this scenario in the chambers of CJ Sophia... "Lottie stole the cookie from the cookie pot." "Who me?" "Yes you!" "It couldn't be me", "Then who?" "Sulley stole the cookie from the cookie pot!" Sulley would hotly deny responsibility and name Georgina.

Anyway, before all these, some time ago, a little back in time, the Honourable House of Honourables was bombarded with an accusation of receiving gifts, which people saw were not gifts in appreciation for good work done, but gifts to motivate works to be done in more than one way to suit the desires of the donor partners.

Hon. P.C. Appiah Ofori, whose mannerisms made him look and sound like an incorruptible PC (police constable), the "Master-sey-make-I-bring-you-sir" type of uncompromising policemen, openly accuse some members of the House, of demanding and accepting the other type of gifts.

Hon. Alban Bagbin also raised the same voice much later, and in both cases, none of these honourables were summoned to the Praetorium to answer questions from our Pontius Pilate.

Later, a dual carriage road project marked to cost $40 million was completed at $120 million due to poor or lack of gross supervision by our honourables. Their response was that they were poorly resourced to undertake that kind of supervision.

There was a banter in the House between two honourables of opposing parties. One said it was hard time certain qualifications were set in place as requirements for entering the House since he alleged that some of the honourables were not up to it, and, simply put, do not understand what is going on in the House. Such are they who are generally voiceless, and the only words that come out from their throats are, "Yeh! Yeh!"

When confronted by their constituents for reasons on their loud silence in the House, they would plead that they do hard work in the sub-committees, and remind people that the work of the House is not only in the Chamber. However, members of their committees will allegedly claim that the contributions of such silent minority also extend to the committee level. These, and many others, were the reasons why that Honourable fellow thought it was time proper materials entered the House and took their seats.

Another, however, was of the view that setting certain criteria could bar some good materials from entering the House. He believed that the free-range style of selection was okay.

And the beat goes on in the Chamber of Auntie Sophia. Georgina was shocked at the mention of her name. "Who me?" "Yes you!" "It couldn't be me" "Then who!" "The District Electoral Officers stole the cookie from the cookie pot!" "Who, we?" "Yes you!" "It couldn't be we," "Then who?" "The politicians stole the cookie from the cookie pot."

The politicians were in the House when another bombshell exploded. A committee was accused of receiving gifts in the region of 475.66 denarii, (@the going speculative rate of 1 denarius to $72.50), to amicably consider a proposal before it. The Head Prefect of the committee took a lion share of 317.10 denarii and gave the rest of the members 158.55 denarii to manage with.

The news was worrisome, as many considered this act as dis-honourable. To date the Pontius Pilate of the House is yet to voice his opinion on the matter, and as the good people of Ghana were waiting, news broke that some police personnel, with orders from above, took the homes of some honourables by storm and subjected them to professional searching.

This is displeasing, since no honourable is supposed to be searched, questioned rudely, or arrested when he or she is on the way to or from Parliament. Then the Pontius Pilate spoke and issued a stern warning to the security agents that if they cannot see what is enshrined in the Constitution, about the rights of honourables, then they should get pairs of reading glasses, or in case they cannot read at all, then they must ask their school-going aged children to read and interpret in a language they can understand.

Here I do agree with the traditional leader of the House, because, surely, if our law enforcing agents can take the law into their hands, then it will be problematic for all of us.

We have lawless mobs too many to handle, and so we certainly cannot accept some lawless law enforcers. Now, since the Honourable House has been hit with this illegality, we hope laws are enacted to make sure that the security agents will respect and protect everyone's rights.

Everyone must respect the law, and this goes for the honourables, and security agents in particular. And back to Auntie Sophia's chamber... "You referring to us?" "Yes you!" "We beg your pardon!" "Then who?" "The electorate stole the cookie from the cookie pot!"

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