The Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, has charged the House Committee of Parliament to take steps to implement a pension scheme for MPs to cushion them during the retirement.
Some ex-MPs have been known in the past to lament about their impoverished situation after leaving parliament.
Despite the benefit of receiving ex gratia payments which run into hundreds of thousands of Ghana cedis after every four years, some of the MPs, who, apart from their core mandate of making laws also provide for the upkeep of their constituents, end up in abject poverty when they leave office.
For some of the MPs, they are unable to return to their professions after quitting parliament.
Prof Oquaye said on Thursday, 30 May 2019, that: “The House must seriously consider matters relating to former members of the House”.
He explained that they are in the process of engaging with the “State Insurance Corporation about insurance” package for MPs, adding that: “we all know that the lives of many former members are not as we would like to see”.
He said it hurts him when he sees the condition of certain legislators after they have completed their terms of office.
“We must, therefore, look at the reality and make provisions for pensions and other aspects of the welfare of honourable members”.
The issue came up after a statement was made eulogising a former Majority Leader, Dr Kwabena Adjei, who died a few weeks ago. The MPs praised the late Chairman of the main opposition National Democratic Congress’s sterling contributions to the democratic dispensation of the country.
However, Pusiga MP, Hajia Laadi Ayamba accused the NDC of neglecting its Dr Adjei in the days leading to his death.
