The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) Sulemana Brimah has said the reputation and dignity of Parliament can be earned through the conduct of Parliamentarians.
Mr Brimah’s remark follows comments from financial analyst and social commentator Mr. Sydney Casely-Hayford that the country’s Legislative body is irrelevant and unimportant and that if he had the chance he would destroy it. “The first thing I will do if I had the opportunity is to break down parliament. We don’t need it,” Mr Casely-Hayford said.
Speaking on the Morning Starr Friday, Mr Brimah said “but I am of the view that the reputation and the dignity and all that we want parliament to have can better be protected and better earned through the attitude, the conduct, the actions of Parliamentarians and officers of Parliament themselves.”
“It is important to hasten to add that even as we recognize the powers of parliament to summon people for contempt, it is important to point out that it is in the light of the need to make sure that parliament’s integrity, its dignity and its reputation is protected,” he noted.
Mr. Brimah expressed worry over Parliament’s inability to act on matters relating to its own members or officers, whose conduct and attitude dent the reputation and integrity of the House.
“We want to see Parliament itself, through its actions and its conduct and through the actions and conduct of its members demonstrating that it is ready, interested and assertive when it comes to promoting and protecting its own integrity,” he stressed.
“I believe that when that is done it may even automatically get people to reflect and get people deterred about what they can say and not say about Parliament,” Mr Brimah noted.
Mr. Casely-Hayford has since apologised over his comment.
