A former member of parliament who wants to remain anonymous has warned gainfully employed persons to be content with their jobs and not rush to be MPs.
According to him there is nothing juicy in parliament apart from the name and prestige you will get. Explaining his assertion the ex-legislator said he regrets leaving his former workplace where he was making it big time.
“Today if l meet my colleagues l was working with at DVLA and they are counting their wealth, l just sit quietly and listen to them. They have left me behind.” He therefore advised youngsters who are clamouring to go to parliament to hasten slowly because there is no gold in parliament.
He however said if you’re made a minister ,then you may make but as an ordinary MP then you have lost big time. The former MP who was relating his ordeal told this reporter that he spent close to 1.8 million ghana cedis to contest his seat but still lost the seat.
“Most MPs go for loans for their primaries and elections proper and sometimes lose elections and Banks chase them for their monies. That’s why some MPs run to abroad to avoid pestering from the banks.Some lose their properties through seizure and auction by these banks.
A colleague of mine had his Land Cruiser seized and sold through auction.” The dejected, bemoaned the practice where delegates demand huge sums before voting and painfully vote against you. I gave out 1000 gh to 700 delegates and spent while going round to see chiefs, opinion leaders, party executives, party members and all people in the constituency. In addition, fuel, T- shirts, flags, posters , bill boards as well as taking care of party offices in the constituencies cost me so much.
The ex MP said though he does not regret being a Parliamentarian for serving his people. You go to Parliament,you get money but you reinvest all into your next campaign. “In fact the Ex-gracia rather helps us to pay our debts otherwise it would be extremely difficult for us to survive. Sometimes l meet some former MPs and l can’t look up their face. One of them who recently passed became so poor that his funeral was poorly organised.
“He stated that when you are in parliament you get links, opportunities, jobs that can bring you money but you plough back the whole money into your campaign and contest to retain your seat and come back to square one. So l pity young ones who want to leave their jobs to become Parliamentarians. Some of them like me have made a wrong decision.
Source :Nana Poku /eveningmailgh
