Honourables, This Is Not Honourable

By Solomon Davids

Charles Kofi Wayo, leader of the United Renaissance Party (URP), attracted the wrath of Parliamentarians this week when he made some unfortunate remarks about the members of the august house.

His remarks became the subject of discussion in Parliament when some Members of Parliament (MPs) insisted he should be summoned to answer questions before the Privileges Committee of Parliament. However, the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon Joyce Banford-Addo, declined to invite him before the committee, to the disappointment of many members who thought he had denigrated the house.

Unfortunately, in their quest to express disgust at Kofi Wayo’s behavior, some Members of Parliament went ‘out of order’ and ended up doing what observers may describe as worse than what they sought to criticize. Besides the comments some of our Honourables made on radio, others said things that did not go down well with Ghanaians, calling into question their moral grounds for speaking against the erring politician.

One MP described Kofi Wayo’s action as that of a mad man taking a person’s clothes whilst the person is in the bathroom. He went on to say that it was wrong for the man in the bathroom to follow the mad man naked. His statement probably did not register well, else some Parliamentarians wouldn’t have followed him into ‘the gutter’.

Granted that Kofi Wayo did the worse thing ever; did that justify the type of comments made both on radio and in Parliament about him? I was surprised when, during the report on the day’s proceedings in Parliament on one of the television stations, I clearly heard an MP making an allegation to the effect that Kofi Wayo had stayed in a hotel without paying. My surprise stemmed from the failure of the leadership of the house to stop him from making an unsubstantiated allegation against a non-MP in the latter’s absence. I know that no MP is allowed to make any unsubstantiated statement about another member without proving it; so, why was the MP allowed to do that? Are MPs so special that they can get away with such ‘offences’.

I was equally surprised at some specific MPs who went to the extent of defending a person who said former President Rawlings caused an arson (a criminal offence) in the name of freedom of expression but could not stand for Kofi Wayo in that same direction. We were in this country when MPs strongly defended Nana Darkwah, an NPP activist who said former President Rawlings had deliberately burnt his house. He was praised as a hero by some Ghanaians, including MPs. That gave him the audacity to say, “maka maka” (to wits, I have said it) after he was released from police custody. Did any of the aggrieved MPs, especially those who held the press conference to defend him, reprimand him? In their so-called defence of freedom of expression, they forgot that in our society, it is wrong to accuse any elderly person without any evidence to support it. Not a single NPP MP (I stand to be corrected) openly condemned the statement because it served their political cause. Nana Darkwah is a youth activist of the party and his statement was directed at the NPP’s opponent so it was worth supporting. In my candid opinion, they must bow down their heads in shame for exposing themselves as self-seeking MPs whose political interest is of more importance than the interest of the nation. If Nana Darkwah did no wrong then what about Kofi Wayo?, they both expressed their opinions.

After all, is this the first time Kofi Wayo is making such a statement? What hasn’t he said about former President Rawlings when he came to Ghana as a hero of the opposition NPP? Today, his statement is wrong because it is about Honourable MPs. What is wrong is wrong; that is why some of us expect Ghanaians in general to speak against any statement that seeks to ridicule or insult the Presidency, the Judiciary, the Legislature and of course any other Ghanaian; for no one is more Ghanaian than the other. Those who saw nothing wrong with insults against Presidents and any other person in society, have no business condemning Kofi Wayo.

It is unfortunate that such a statement was made against MPs and we must all condemn it; but let us not be selective in our approach to some of these issues. Condemning Kofi Wayo for his unfortunate statement is right but it is not honourable for Honourable MPs to do worse than him. When you follow the mad that took your clothes whilst you were in the bathroom, you might look madder than him. As for the mad man, everyone knows he is already mad.