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Combination Parliament. Designer Parliament. Ralf Laurent Parliament. Yvonne Nelson Parliament, Ama Boahema parliament - Come on � check them out menh. Wow. So we all thought the joke was one Ghanaian gospel singer who has stopped singing because well, she has ran out of poverty-induced lyrics now that she�s chilling in the U.S The young lady beat the CSIR, Ghana Dermatologist Association, WHO, World Council of professional dermatologist, Ghana Beauticians Association and over one million Ghanaians living in the western hemisphere to a simple, straight out truth. Milk changes skins colour from a dark pigment to a pig-like pigment. E-Lab is just wondering what Nestle Ghana Ltd, Caritone beauty products and all the beauty creams are doing keeping Jackie Appiah, Nana Ama McBrown as the brand ambassadors for their creams. #GogetAmaBoahemaa And so just when the fun which began on Monday started subsiding, 275 parliamentarians gave it a new twist by Friday. They have imported a grade of Chinese chairs which according to Minority leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu was carefully selected to match with the other light brown texture of Parliament�s chamber. But like Ama Boahemaa�s skin, the chairs are seen by some MPs as inferior. So who do we get to try and rationalize this purchase? We need a smart, eloquent MP, preferably a lawyer who can sell this thing to Ghanaians. Any ideas who can fit the description? Honorable Joe Appiah? Naaah. After the last memorable time he spoke in Parliament we have since realized that the MP still hasn�t gotten over whether those who protect Ghana�s borders are called body guides, border guards or body guards. So who? Yes. And to be fair, the Minority Leader did mount a good defence- if he was a Chinese businessman. The chairs are not of a low quality, he said. If a screw gets lose in the chair that would have to be because of improper assemblage not necessarily a question of quality. They couldn�t wait for a local furniture company because he believed that it would take too much time of about a year and a half for that kind of company to do this work which needed to be done in 14 weeks maximum. Parliament, he implied had taste which local producers would find �almost impossible� to satisfy. And this argument has been the same argument made to favour doing business with China and crippling business in Ghana. And it is exactly this kind of mentality that is so so very sure to consign Ghanaian business to constant insignificance. Pitching Ghanaians companies against foreign ones is not competition, It is bullying. When E-Lab was fighing JSS 3 students while in Primary 5, my teachers didn�t think it was competition while they intervened. Asking a nine-year old to write the same test as a 40 year old is not education, it is hallucination. We choose a Ghanaian company over a Chinese exactly because it is the only real way to build the capacity of the business which Kyei Mensah Bonsu says they lack. Positive bias. But the local businesses are not the only ones who lack capacity. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu noted in May this year, that replacing experienced MPs with new ones is affecting the work of parliament because it would take too much time for new ones to develop the knowledge the old ones have. So why would the Minority leader have to work with MPs who lack capacity to pass important life-changing laws? Because the great importance of pass bills, does not outweigh the democratic importance of choosing our own leaders � even if they are inferior. Exactly. In the same way, despite the great importance of having chairs that can improve the thinking of MPs, chairs that can automatically correct the grammar of some MPS, chairs that can release chemicals into the brain to help MPs vote along patriotic not partisan lines � all these advantage cannot outweigh the great importance of giving Ghanaians preferential treatment in doing these chairs. If we the people go to the polls to choose inferior MPs to govern us, then what stops them from returning the same favour of choosing inferior us to do chairs? Since we have replaced the parliament with chinese chairs, why not complete to process and replace parliamentarians with Chinese MPs? You don't think so? Watch this video. See the only reason why we have not asked the IMF boss to become our president is not because we have a better one but because we have a constitutional provision that places where you come from above what you can do � it�s a morally bias constitutional provision that is making us keep Ghanaian MPs when we could negotiate for the importation of Scandinavian ones. The only reason why Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu has not been replaced with Liberal Democratic leader Nick Clegg is because the British MP is not a Ghanaian not because Ghana�s Minority leader is better. We are Ghanaians. We have an interest. We can�t be objective. If we were, everybody in this country will face the fate of Kwesi Appiah � sacked. You have been advocating for more time to scrutinize bills but you cannot advocate for more time for Ghanaian carpenters to knock together some chairs? You guys rushed to the Chinese to get chairs the same way you have been rushing to pass bills. MPs charged to scrutinize mining contracts "CeSIS expressed worry about the turn of events at the PAC hearing because the impression �is being created that Honourable Members of Parliament do not do due diligence before passing these Mining Agreements that have huge financial ramifications for the economy.� Members of the PAC were surprised at the figures churned out. The MPs were particularly animated over the fact that most mining companies retain and repatriate 80 per cent of their earnings. Newmont Ghana Gold Limited was particularly singled out because the company has a contract with stability clauses with the Government that permits it to retain 100 per cent of its earnings offshore". These are part of the reasons why nobody really takes parliament seriously. Because when you imagine that people queue to get you there and how you guys are in so much debt because of loans you used to campaign to get there only for you to come to us with a bucket list of needs � new cars, new loans,, new accommodation, new chairs, four-year back-dated pay, amazing ex-gratia packages � You are hit with the sudden realization that having a parliament as we have now is simply not worth it. And the sign that we are not getting value for money in parliament can be seen in the example that on the very week you got brand new china chairs, you devoted controversy to whether the Speaker of Parliament should have taken the presidential oath to act in the absence of the President and Vice-President. E-Lab can almost swear to the MPs the average nobody in Ghana doesn�t give a hoot who is sworn in in the president�s absence. Parliament has thrown a damper on President�s Mahama�s made-in Ghana campaign in a way that only entrenches parliament�s own constitutionally designed insignificance. And so next time when parliament thinks about checking President Mahama�s choices, parliament must remember to check their chairs - first. Next time when Osei Kyei Mensa Bonsu says something like this �Government is using various strategies to sabotage businesses in Ghana including Tobinco. If government is advocating for promotion of businesses in Ghana, why is it determined to destroy some businesses in the country?,� he asked. The Suame MP should remember that the joke is not on the President or even Ama Boahemaa, the joke is on him.