MPs not promoting 'Made in Ghana' attires like I am doing – Bagbin laments

Bagbin ditches ceremonial cloak for traditional outfits

Ghanaians hail Speaker for promoting Made In Ghana

Muntaka Mubarak, others commended for wearing traditional outfit

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has lamented failure of Members of Parliament to tow his example of promoting 'Made in Ghana' outfits as they conduct business in the House.

According to him, some

Read full article.MPs were still under mental slavery over their continuous taste for dressing in foreign attires.

He said MPs and Ghanaians at large must strive to break free from such shackles and practices.

Bagbin reiterated his call on MPs to dress in traditional wear when coming to work.

“I put a lot of value on the African. I respect our traditions and cultures. If you don’t love yourself nobody will love you. If you don’t treasure yourself, nobody will treasure you. If you don’t market yourself, nobody will market you.
If you see somebody being better than you, you will continue to be a slave to that person. Let’s liberate ourselves from mental slavery. I have shown the way. If you will not follow, you will be left behind.

"Posterity will judge all of us. We must value Ghana. We must market Ghana and we just don’t do it by word. We also do it by action. I said from the very beginning I expect to see many of you in traditional wear.

"Unfortunately, you are all still stuck in the past except a few. Once again, I’m compelled to say this. That is how you provide market for you own produce. Even the Chinese who do contract works in Ghana almost all the materials that they use for the construction work, they come from China.

"You think it’s for nothing? That is how you grow. Please as leaders, let’s show the way, our people will follow,’ Alban Bagbin said on February 17.

The Former Nadowli-Kaleo MP, however, singled out some MPs including Muntaka Mubarak, Dan Botwe and Kennedy Agyapong and praised them for wear African fabric always.

Background
All eyes were on Parliament as sittings resumed on Tuesday, January 25, 2022, after a month’s break.

As expected, many were fixated on when matters and discussions on the contentious Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy) will rear its head in the business of the House as a result of the fisticuffs between MPs on the same issue late last year.

However, the Speaker of Parliament, Rt Hon. Alban Bagbin had something up his sleeves as he showed up in Parliament in a royal traditional outfit.

Alban Bagbin ditched his usual ceremonial outfit for more indigenous wear from the Volta Region.

It would be recalled that before the House was adjourned for the Christmas Holidays, the Speaker announced that he would only be using the Speaker’s cloak for ceremonial occasions this year as part of his commitment to change the dress code and code of conduct of MPs.

In his official welcome to the House, the Speaker urged the Members to take a cue from his outfit and dress in traditional wear just like the first President of the nation, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

“From now on I want to see our members appear in Parliament decently adorned in traditional dress,” he said.

Social media users particularly those on Twitter praised the Speaker for promoting made in Ghana products.