Proposed New Chamber of Parliament - Let's Balance Our Needs and Wants

Economists define our needs as the goods and services we urgently require for our existence and survival. They include such things as water, food and shelter. Without these things we cannot survive; so we need them in our lives.

Our wants on the other hand are the things that we require to make life a little bit enjoyable. Our wants may not be necessary but we desire for them to satisfy our needs.

Because of our limited resources, we try to make a balance between our needs and wants in our daily choices. This is because it is extremely difficult to satisfy all of our needs and wants at the same time.

As a nation, we also have our needs and wants. Policy makers try to allocate the limited resources that we have at our disposal to meet our needs and wants.

Our competing needs and wants are sometimes extremely difficult to satisfy because "one man's meat is another man's poison."

Since the idea of new chamber for the legislature came up, the reactions have been varied and emotional.

The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin, has been worried over the reactions by a section of the public, especially he is concerned about what he described as the 'attacks' on Members of Parliament (MPs) and the institution of Parliament on the proposed new chamber, explaining that it has dire consequence of eroding the pillar of democracy.

We have chosen the path of democracy as our system of governance. We are reminded that democracy comes at a cost.

The Ghanaian Times humbly submits that in building our democratic institutions, we should balance the needs of society and the priorities of our governing institutions.

We are aware that the institution of Parliament has not got the building of its own. The Old Parliament House, which now houses the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice and Economic and Organised Crime Office, could not contain the Fourth Republican Parliament.

The legislature had to be relocated in the "Job 600' which was initially built in 1965 to serve as the venue for the Organisation of African Unity Summit, now African Union, and the edifice has undergone renovations and expansions to give Parliament a befitting place to operate.

The institution of Parliament has one time or the other, operated from the Accra International Conference Centre and State Banquet Hall, to the discomfort of MPs and Parliamentary service staff.

In as much as we would like our august institution of Parliament to have a befitting edifice of their own, Ghanaian Times feels that Parliament must create a balance between its needs and wants, in view of our limited resources and the economic challenges confronting the country.

We are encouraged by the position of the Majority leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osie Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu that whatever decision which would be arrived at on the new chamber for Parliament, would take the views of the public into consideration.

We know MPs are in constant touch with the aspirations of the electorate.

Much so, as it is the prayer of Parliament to help do away with poverty in the country, reflecting in the daily prayers offered by the Speaker before every Parliamentary sitting.

Read Full Story