A letter to The Speaker; why MPs must be stripped off ‘honourable’ title

By: Pearl Asiamah

Dear S.O.P, On behalf of Ghanaians, I want to render an unqualified apology to you. It seems you are the headmaster of a primary school instead of being the Speaker of the 7th Parliament of the 4th Republic of Ghana.

We are sorry that you have to deal with such unruly children masquerading as adults with willingness to serve our nation. They tricked us into believing that they were indeed honourable adults and so we put them in the House and now we (you and the rest of us), have the misfortune of being ensnared by their antics.

In fact Sir, it is my opinion that, in light of recent events; members of the House desist from using the not only illusory, but the mendacious title ‘honourable.’ To make my point, I borrow and paraphrase the words of Oliver Cromwell and ask how do members of the House as a collective entity call themselves honourable when they have dishonoured by contempt of all virtue, and defiled by practice of iniquitous vices, the sanctity of the august House.

Sir, as Cromwell said, a factious crew, enemies to all good government; people who like Esau would sell their country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray their God for a few pieces of money, do not deserve to be called members of Parliament. I then ask; how do we then per our seemingly sane minds call such ‘honourable’?

Sir, no disrespect intended here, but there’s no honour in the House now. Don’t get me wrong, I do know that there are some, probably a collective majority that who indeed men and women of honour. However their honour has been clouded by the unscrupulous few within their ranks.

To us, the citizens, the engagements and collective conduct of this House are as honourable as Judas in the presence of thirty pieces of sliver. With the ‘Ayarigate’ Report and the aftermath nearly free for all brawl that night, Sir, you are presiding over a degenerated House. A House perceived to barter it’s conscience for bribes can surely not itself or its members demand from nation the title ‘honourable.’

To me; the only way the House can redeem itself, is to purge itself of the cancerous dishonourable members. Sir; from the Report, the House has been hit in two ways. Although the multiplicity of a rumour does not metamorphose the rumour into fact, the committee could not debunk the veracity of the said rumour. A rumour is not fact until proven to be the truth, and it is not a lie until proven to be false.

That is why hearsays are not used in the adjudication of criminal or civil matters in the court of law.However, none of us have physically seen God; yet a majority of us believe in Him based on rumours. A person’s perception of any issue sometimes is solely moulded on rumours.

So to some of us now, the House of our Legislature, is a den of bribe taking disingenuous liars with no iota of interest in the affairs of the nation. Worse still; is the perception that there are members who will unintelligently act on rumours. How safe are we with such impetuous members as our representatives?

Sir, get rid of the identified Rumour Monger, no apology rendered would be enough to wipe the disgrace this debacle has regurgitated all over the House and the country. Let his expulsion if for nothing at all; serve as a warning to other members not to act on rumours.

I wish you luck, there’s nothing more tedious than dealing with children with self-entitlement issues copulating with self-aggrandizing tendencies. Thank You