Mr Abotsi
A former Dean of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) Law School, Kofi Abotsi, has observed that Parliament has over the years failed the citizenry due to its inability to keep the executive arm of government accountable.
He accused the legislature of being more concerned about protecting partisan and executive interest rather than that of the ordinary citizen.
Speaking at the second edition of the Ghana Action Series organised by the One Ghana Movement on the theme, ‘Responsible citizenship and accountable leadership’, Mr. Abotsi explained that “the primary motive for the formation of parliament is to act as a check on the executive, a role which has been neglected over the years.
“The concept of the framers of the constitution was to put together a group of people who are parliamentarians structured in a certain way who are going to lead us by ensuring that the executive are being checked.
“Parliament is supposed to play that role, starting from the first parliament, there was an expectation that this is our president, this is our executive, parliament’s expectation is to go into parliament and promote the agenda of their executive, you have parties in parliament seeing themselves as an extension of the executive, that is where we got it wrong up until today” and cited the uncompleted Madina-Adentan footbridges as “evidence of parliament’s neglect of the concerns of the citizenry over the years.
“If parliament was proactive, the Minister of Roads and Highways Minister should have been dragged to parliament and the necessary measures will be put in place to curb future deaths on the Madina-Adenta highway.
“If parliament is to play its accountability, probity, transparency and responsibility as expected of it, the Madina-Adentan footbridges will not have been a challenge, and the Minister of Roads and Highways will have probably been in parliament answering questions,” Mr Abotsi stressed. –citinewsroom.com
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