[ 2016-06-15 ]

Set academic standards for MPs – Osae
Ghana should consider setting a minimum
educational qualification for parliamentarians if
it intends to, in the long-term, improve the
quality of deliberations in the House or the
general work of parliament, suggests Dr Eric Oduro
Osae, Dean of Graduate Studies at the Institute of
Local Government.

He said a legislator needed to be “on top of
issues” before getting up to talk, and against
the backdrop that the use of the English Language
as the official medium of discussion in the house
is not a native tongue, those with a limited
ability to expressing themselves in the language
or with a low educational status are hampered in
making contributions on the floor of the house,
lowering the standard of discussion.

However, he stated that beyond overcoming the
linguistic barrier, there was the need to be
competent and conversant with issues to enrich
discussions.

“Quality in terms of calibre and qualification
of parliamentarians have a bearing on [debate] and
even the laws they pass as parliamentarians
because the work of parliament is not an easy
task. They are an important arm of our government
responsible for making laws. And in the
formulation of some laws, lifetime experiences are
required. It may call for someone who has worked
in that sector for a considerable time and knows
the consequences of the decisions he makes,” he
stated on Accra100.5FM’s Ghana Yensom on Tuesday
June 14.

“Somebody can find his way into parliament by
buying his way out, that is also possible.
Especially if you look at our Constitution we have
no educational qualification requiring one to be
able to read and write before going to
parliament.”

He said the country’s political parties could
play their part by electing the most competent
aspirants in their primaries instead of electing
persons on grounds of mere popularity, though he
warned legal issues could arise from such a move.

“Parliament is about getting the most popular
person from a particular constituency, it is not
about getting the most competent person. The
purpose of elections is to elect the most popular
person. So if we want to improve the calibre, the
quality, and the background of people in
parliament then we should introduce some
competence criteria in the process so that when
every party is interviewing its aspiring
parliamentary candidates, they will lay down a
qualification that say, if you have no degree or
HND, you cannot be made to represent. But it may
lead to court action as there is no such
restriction in the constitution, so the party has
no right to restrict them. That also becomes an
issue.”

He referred to a Zambian example where the
country was trying to enact legislation to ensure
that assemblyman or councillor aspirants had a
minimum academic qualification of Grade 12 to be
eligible to contest for such positions.

“If we were to do a similar thing with our
parliament it would help us in terms of the
quality of debate,” he added, though he admitted
that partisan interests, too, sometimes marred the
quality of debates.

Source - classfmonline.com

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