Bagbin Wants Public Educated On MPs’ Role As Lawmakers

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Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin is calling for increased education of the public about the true mandate of parliamentarians.

According to him, the misconception of the role and functions of parliament has greatly undervalued the role of the legislature in the democratic dispensation of the country and affected the effectiveness of MPs as far as the core business of the chamber is concerned.

Mr Bagbin made the call at the opening of a two-day consultative meeting for West Africa-based Parliamentary Monitoring Organisations in Accra on Tuesday, 15 June 2021.

The workshop, put together by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD Ghana), with support from US-based National Democratic Institute, brought together dozens of Parliamentary Monitoring Organisations (PMOs) across the sub-region to deliberate on strengthening PMOs to enhance Parliamentary openness, inclusive policies, transparency and responsiveness.

Delivering his address, Mr Bagbin urged the participants to use the opportunity to chart new paths for advocacy on the role and functions of Parliament.

Below is Mr Bagbin’s full speech

REMARKS BY THE SPECIAL GUEST OF HONOUR, RT. HON. ALBAN SUMANA KINGSFORD BAGBIN, SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT, AT THE OPENING OF THE WEST AFRICA PARLIAMENTARY MONITORING ORGANIZATIONS’ (PMOs) CONFERENCE ON 15TH JUNE 2021 IN ACCRA

Mr. Chairman

Hon. Members of Parliament present

Representatives of Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations

Executives of the National Democratic Institute

Heads and Representatives of CSOs from other West African countries

Distinguished Invited Guests

Friends from the media

Ladies and gentlemen!

I am indeed greatly honored by the invitation to be the Special Guest of Honor for the maiden West African Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations (PMOs) conference. I would like to express my appreciation to the organizers of the conference, the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and its collaborating partners – the National Democratic Institute of Washington, Parliamentary Network Africa and the Ghana Network of Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations for this invitation. Let me also take this opportunity to warmly welcome our foreign participants to Accra.

This conference, I am told, is the first stage towards connecting PMOs in West Africa to enable them to share best practices, learn from one another and explore effective ways of engaging Parliaments within their respective countries. I am particularly happy with this initiative, and I trust that discussions during the two-day conference will lead to enhanced ways of strengthening citizens-parliament engagements. Parliaments exist because of the citizens within their jurisdiction. Consequently, Parliaments need to reach out to citizens on constant basis and make them a part of what Parliaments do.