Vice President of policy think tank, Imani Ghana has laid into Ghanaian Members of Parliament, saying “most of them can’t sufficiently express themselves in English”.
Kofi Bentil is of the opinion that the benchmarks in the selection of MPs in the country are mediocre, thus, allow every Tom, Dig and Harry to aspire to become a legislator.
“I am not saying one has to be expressive in the Queen’s language before contesting as an MP, but it is also baffling that an individual contesting as an MP can’t satisfactorily express his or herself in English.
“So whoever says the language is not important is deceiving you, because whether you like it or not, our laws are written in English and one has to master it before considering to become a lawmaker,” the legal practitioner submitted on GHOne Television on Friday.
Kofi Bentil said the awful procedure in the selection of MPs has affected the “quality of debate” and thorough scrutiny of loans and bills.
“Now parliament pass bills and loans and most of them are riddled with unpardonable errors. You find simple, simple grammatical mistakes,” he asserted.
Against that background, Mr Bentil urged the House and the political parties to revise the criteria used in the selection of MPs before matters get worse.
Source: asempanews
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I understand that 80% parliamentarians have obtained at least a uni degree. Why is it that the Queens language should be a problem for many of them?
Kofi, so long as Ghana constitution does not make English as the only means by which somebody can become a parliamentarian, we cannot bar any one from attaining this position in Ghana. It is up to anyone aspiring to become a parliamentarian to assess his/her skills-language inclusive to function expectedly. Other countries do well in managing their national affairs effectively without proficiency in English language, as others have alluded to. Typical of them in Africa is Lesotho. If they are not doing well, just as Ghana, there may be some fundamental national economic ailing factors that need to be identified and tackled with all seriousness, should we desire to advance our beloved nation, Ghana. Thus though English counts it is not a foolproof to our lack of honesty and or efficient and effective use of national resources. The current political atmosphere is indicative of the citizenry sensitivity to accountability and I believe we are set on our way to hold our politicians accountable. English or no English we should be able to do better.
I totally agree with you Mr Bentil. So in the end only about 20% of parliamentarians do the work in the house and it can be overwhelming. We need to consciously improve the quality of our parliament.
If one is not proficient in the language use to transact business, how does one become effective? Tikrɔ nkɔ agyina, how then can one put his/her point across. I suggest, they must be allowed to speak in the language they best identify with, afterall , effective parliamentary work is what we are after. Political parties would prefer a candidate who can at least speak a bit of the Queen's language but the delegates would want someone who represents their interest and we all know who and how they are. Total overhaul of the political landscape would go a long way to solving this problem
The Imani boss Franklin Cudjoe did not vote. They have no standing to comment on the people that dedicated Ghanaian citizens elected.
YOU, YOURSELF SAID 'HIS SELF' INSTEAD OF HIMSELF, WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT THAT? MR. ENGLISHMAN BENTIL.
It's interesting how we r citing Chinese parliament but forgetting that anyone who can't use Chinese as medium to transact business in Chinese parliament have no business to be there...to some extend likewise our parliament. let's encourage people to master the queens language because English is like any other language people can learn without necessarily attaining high level of education. I perfectly also agreed that speaking eloquent english does not make one knowledgeable or superior. It's from colonial mentality continue by few by political elite/literates to suppress the illiterate majority. what about ghanaians who speaks 3 or more languages?
Master you it wrong, what is English? Do the Russians, Japanese, Chinese, Germans speak English in their offices or Parliament? Ahhh, give us a break Did okomfo Anokye speak English and so many of our fore fathers did they speak English? Our fathers who saw the need build their communities and patriotic they speak English? What is brofo
so they should used the language they are proficient in and someone has to interpret it to the members of parliament. english is an alien language, period.