NPP Under Fire Over Soft Opposition To Government

Head of the Linguistics Department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology,Charles Marfo, says the opposition New Patriotic Party risks losing its relevance in the nation�s political landscape if it continues with its soft opposition to the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress administration.

Charles Marfo is particularly disappointed in the Minority NPP Members of Parliament over their �lackadaisical� attitude towards scrutinizing polices rolled out by the government.

According to Dr Marfo, the Minority MPs have not demonstrated their commitment to keeping government on its toes to fix the ailing economy.

In an interview, Dr Marfo challenged the NPP to prove to Ghanaians that.it could be an alternative to the ruling government by constructively critiquing government policies.

�As in every democratic dispensation, one expects the minority, or the opposition for that matter, to be an alternative government, in which case one expects that they play an oversight role in checking the actions of government,� he posited.

He observed: �Talking about checks and balances they will stand in as an entity that will check the actions of the government; sometimes when government budget is sent to Parliament, for example, one expects the opposition to critically look at the budget and what the budget seeks to achieve but the budgets get approved all the time and one wonders what goes on in Parliament.�

In reference to President John Mahama�s recent State of the Nation Address, Dr Marfo said: �With the last State of the Nation Address, one would have expected that a lot of the things that the President said, the opposition will subject some of the items he announced to critical analysis and come out with an alternative State of the Nation Address.�

Source: thestatesmanonline.com