Head of the Linguistics Department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Charles Marfo has predicted Ghana’s biggest opposition party; the NPP may lose its relevance in the political landscape if they continue with their soft stance on government policies.
He expressed his disappointment in especially the minority NPP Members of Parliament’s “lackadaisical” attitude towards scrutinizing governments rolled out policies.
Dr. Marfo maintained that the minority MP’s have not demonstrated their commitment to keeping government on its toes to fix the ailing economy.
In an interview with Citi News, Dr. Marfo suggested that the NPP should prove to Ghanaians that they could be an alternative to the ruling government by constructively critiquing government policies.
“As every democratic dispensation one expects the minority or the opposition for that matter to be an alternative government in which case one expects that they play an oversight role in checking the actions of government.”
He wondered, “Talking about checks and balances, they will stand in as an entity that will check the actions of the government; sometimes when government budget is sent to Parliament for example one expect the opposition to critically look at the budget and what the budget seeks to achieve but the budgets get approved all the time and one wonders.”
In reference to President John Mahama’s recent State of the Nation Address, Dr. Marfo said: “With the last State of the Nation Address one would have expected that a lot of the things that the President said the opposition will subject some of the items he announced to critical analysis and come out with an alternative State of the Nation Address.”
By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana