Make yourselves available to constituents - Second Deputy Speaker to MPs
The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Andrew Asiamah Amoako, has admonished Members of Parliament (MPs) to make themselves readily available to their constituents to enhance their chances of being retained.
"Our constituents are our source of power.
We cannot continue to neglect our people and only go to them during elections.
This is unfair and a sign of disrespect," he said during an educational engagement at the Parliament House yesterday with the students of Kwapia R/C Basic School in the Adansi District in the Ashanti Region.
The educational engagement, organised by the Public Engagement Department of Parliament, was to give an insight of how Parliament operated and to let the students have a feel of proceedings in the House.
The Second Deputy Speaker, who is an old student of the school and an Independent MP for Fomena in the Ashanti Region, said: "Our constituents hold the key to make or unmake us and we need to be careful with how we treat them."
He seized the opportunity to share with the students his work schedule as the Second Deputy Speaker and the changes as an MP.
The girls prefect of the school, Patience Oti-Oware, appealed to Mr Amoako to furnish the school with computers to improve their performance in ICT.
In his response, Mr Amoako said a classroom project he has initiated on the school's campus included a number of computers which would be ready soon.
He also announced to his Alma Mater that a six-unit water closet toilet facility was being upgraded to a 12-unit facility to also cater for a nearby school, Kwapia D/A Basic School.
Parliamentary initiative
The Independent MP for Fomena assured the students of putting in place measures with the support of the school's authority to deepen the understanding of the operations of Parliament and provide support for those who might want to venture into politics in the future.
The school honoured the Second Deputy Speaker with a memento and a citation presented by Kwapia Most Beautiful, Shafawo Mohammed, and her First runner-up, Mariam Boah.