First Deputy Speaker and Member of Parliament for Bekwai in the Ashanti Region, Joseph Osei-Owusu has attributed the recent surge in chaos and violence on the floor of parliament to ungroomed and vile young entrants pushed into the House by political parties.
According to the the First Deputy Speaker, the norm over the years has been political parties grooming young men and women to be responsible politicians and also for parliament. He explained that in times past, political parties used to recruit young people who have shown intellectual and social capabilities to hold public office and then groom them for leadership position.
However, the situation according to Joe Wise has currently changed. He disclosed that parties themselves are now recruiting persons with no grooming but rude and vile to represent them in parliament.
The MP noted that the cause of the recent chaos and violence parliament is currently dealing with is the making of political parties. He therefore expressed his fear that if the trend is not curtailed, parliament will in the near future turn into a boxing a ring.
The first deputy speaker who was speaking in a interview with Accra-based TV3 explained that “sometimes the parties even go out to recruit people who have not demonstrated that they have the intellectual and social capacity to be public officers, because they are popular they can win the seat, that appears to be the only consideration that parties give to people who are going to contest the seats.
“The parties which have the responsibility to groom people before they become representatives here are not doing anything. Unfortunately, it appears to me that those who are vile in the choice of their language, those who are rude in their attitude towards their opponents and sometimes internal opponents, and those who can make the most catching comments about others are gaining more popularity and they are being put in front,” he added.
He concluded that “the level of decorum I observed when I joined [Parliament] and what I observed today, there is a vast difference. If you ask me, it is a bad reflection of young people coming into the chamber. I am afraid that if we don’t curb it now, in the next two or three Parliaments we will not have a parliament, we will have a boxing ring.”
