Political Science Professor at the University of Ghana, Legon Ransford Yaw Gyampo has descended heavily on Minority members of Parliament (MPs) who could not stand their grounds to reject the ministerial nominees of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday.
He said inasmuch as lobbying is acceptable in parliamentary democracies, it is only for a good cause.
Therefore, one cannot and should not be lobbied into moving away from one’s good cause in parliamentary democracy to follow a bad one.
“Because [the Minority] had a good cause, I was expecting that they were going to live according to that cause,” he noted on TV3‘s The Keypoints on Saturday, March 25.
“Lobbying and trying to talk to the other side to vote along your side is normal in every parliamentary democracy but if you have a good cause and you are lobbied to sacrifice that good cause, then there is something wrong with your head.”
To him, the members of Parliament represent certain interests, which are not personal, and so must have acted in sync with those interests.
By that, the Political Scientist noted that almost every major identifiable group in the country was in chorus for the government to downsize and the opportunity brought itself with voting on the ministerial nominees.
He said this chorus had even transcended the shores of the country to the extent that even foreign diplomats were singing same tune.
As a result, he insisted that the Minority MPs who voted to approve the ministerial nominees did a grave disservice to the nation.
“If in trying to satisfy those [fiduciary] interests, you act in a manner that is not in sync with the interest of the people who own the power, then I repeat, there is something wrong with your head.”
This comes after all six ministerial nominees were voted for despite a secret ballot ostensibly cast to reject them.
The Majority Caucus of the House had argued for the approval of the nominees without recourse to any voting but the Minority had been insistent on secret ballot, hoping to win over some of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs to their side.
The disagreement over whether to have the secret ballot or not led the Speaker, Alban Bagbin, to suspend sitting for hours.
When proceedings resumed on Friday, March 24, the secret voting was cast but by a total of 272 MPs as three were absent.
All six ministerial nominees including KT Hammond and Bryan Acheampong were, however, approved.
Already, the outcome has sent shivers down the spine of many NDC supporters, some calling for the MPs to be punished by their constituents in their upcoming primaries.
Prof Gyampo backed this school of thought.
“When they are able to identify such people, then I would say that their party and their constituents should deal with them for voting in a manner that went contrary to the constituents’ demand and the party position.”