Political competency is not sexually transmitted from a dead MP

Governance is a serious business, parliament is for competent men and women who can make laws for us, not widows. Political competency is not sexually transmitted.

This patrilineal and matrilineal inheritance approach to decide who represents the people must stop. 

A Member of Parliament (MP) is not a family property reserved for some families, nor is it a preserve transferable by mere bloodline. The competence of a member of parliament cannot be replicated in his or her surviving spouse.

When a doctor dies, can we replace him or her with the spouse?

If a teacher or a lecturer dies, can we replace him or her with the spouse at the university or school as the lecturer?

If a nurse dies, must her sister or brother be made to replace him or her at the health facility where he or she used to works?

The answer is certainly no. This means everything thing is wrong with the inheritance approach of the ruling NPP to replace MPs and members of parliament with their spouses and siblings

The tendency of the ruling NPP to always seek sympathetic votes from electorates each time a member of parliament passes on is not good for our democratic governances and electoral processes. 

Hon. Lydia Alhassan of West Ayawaso fame and the bloody bye-elections are still fresh in our memories. In the run-up to the December 7th elections, at least two parliamentary candidates of the ruling NPP have lost their lives.

One would expect the NPP to choose those who placed second in the primaries or use a more democratic process to get a befitting replacement for such a candidate. Rather, they chose the easy way out which may lead to putting square pegs in round holes. 

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Ophelia Mensah Hayford the widow of the slain MP for Mfantseman MP, Ekow Quansah Hayford was quickly pushed in to replace the husband. How effective will she be, and is she cut out for politics?

Taking such decisions makes it obvious that, the NPP is truly a family and friend’s government as has been trumpeted by the NDC in recent times.  

Democratic systems must work throughout every level of policies and fiber of society. Political parties must not only claim to be democratic but must act with all intentions and live by it. 

Governance is a serious business and democratic means of selecting representatives or would be representatives of constituencies in each political party must be free and fair, giving all potential candidates the chance of being in the sampled qualified applicants.

The NPP’s sympathetic vote strategy used when Hon Lydia Alhassan was made to replace the husband the late Hon. Agyakoo must not be entertained in our democracy.

Parliament is for competent men, and women are democratically elected to represent the people. This process starts from the party level and so any flawed and unscientific mode of appointing them must be avoided. The mere selection of widows to replace their dead spouses and to represent the people is not an objective approach to democracy, and all right-thinking members of the political divide must see this as wrong. 

Ophelia Mensah Hayford the widow of the deceased MP followed the precedent of Hon. Lydia Alhassan. The widows must also have the willpower to say no to the pressures of party leaders and to be able to mourn their deceased spouses with respect and dignity. 

There is a need for parliament, political parties, civil society organizations, and the general Ghanaian public to reason together and enact relevant laws to stop political parties from this inheritance approach to replacing deceased MPs and parliamentary candidates with their spouses and family members.