The Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central Constituency in the Central Region, Kennedy Agyapong, has criticised politicians who allow the electorate to hold them to ransom for fear of losing an election.
“Politicians fear electoral loss so even when there is an opportunity to speak the truth, we refuse to say it and we behave as though without politics, we will not survive, so, voters are almost holding as to ransom by threatening they will not vote or vote out of power a particular government,” he bemoaned.
According Mr Agyapong, Whether the New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, they should arrest prominent people engaged in illegal business such as illegal mining (galamsey) and also confiscate their equipment used in illegal mining.
“I wonder why when the two political parties are in power they allow the electorate to hold them to ransom by threatening them they will not vote or vote them out of power because they are not allowed to have their way and say, for instance, indulging in illegal mining to deplete the environment,” he lamented.
He was furious over the destruction of water bodies amid the stuttering war on illegal small-scale mining popularly referred to as ‘galamsey’ and insisted that political will remained the missing factor in the fight against the scourge which continued to ravage forests and water bodies.
Mr Agyapong indicated that the fear of electoral losses had led many politicians to be held ransom by voters due to the ‘dirty’ nature of conducting politics in the country and both the NPP and NDC did not hold the interest of the nation as supreme saying “if an NPP government is going to initiate a policy in the interest of the nation, the NDC in opposition will criticise and vice versa.
“That is why the electorate hold politicians to ransom but if NPP rolls out beneficial policy and the opposition NDC supports and assists, they (electorate) will not hold us to ransom since the two parties believe it will be in the interest of the nation however, indiscipline in the wider society started from the politicians who look out for their own and other secondary interests instead of the national interest,” he alleged.
