MP’s URGED TO BE SERIOUS WITH THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION BILL

MP’s URGED TO BE SERIOUS WITH THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION BILL
Mr. Alhassan Imoro, Principal of the International Institute of Journalism in Tamale has called on Members of Ghana’s Legislature to serve the collective interest of their constituents by immediately passing the Right to Information Bill into law. He is convinced that the Parliamentarians on whose shoulders the Right to Information Bill lies have no excuse for dragging their feet on the matter which is of importance to all Ghanaians. Mr. Imoro Alhassan who is also a media consultant with the Northern Rural Media Network (RUMNET), a Tamale based Non Governmental Organization realized that passing the Bill into law will make Ghana assume the status as the gateway to West Africa with regards the Right to Information. He was speaking at a day’s regional forum on the Right to Information in Tamale where he opined that the Parliamentarians were afraid to pass it into law because the media will be more resourced to expose them to their constituents. He observed that the Right to Information law will encourage Ghanaians to get involved in social auditing in their communities as a means of strengthening public transparency and accountability. Mr. Imoro Alhassan expressed his deepest worry about the increasing number of politicians owning media houses in Ghana and hence called for its immediate reversal. According to him, the situation has created an enabling environment for politicians, social commentators and serial callers to spew insults and assassinate characters believed to be their opponents. For his part, Mahama Zakaria, northern regional Coordinator of the Right to Information and Convener of the forum categorically stated that members of the Coalition will incite the electorate against their MP’s if they continue with what he described as their “Lukewarm attitude” towards the Right to Information Bill. He noted that the attitude of the Parliamentarians toward the Right to Information Bill meant that they were not seeking the interest of the masses but their selfish gains. Mahama Zakariah described as “Unwise and unjustifiable” the Parliamentary select committee on the Right to Information’s decision to hold public consultative forum for the three northern regions on Monday August 1 without any prior notice to that effect. The forum drew participants from the security, the media, the clergy, the political class and the general public.