NPP Will Be Seen As Hypocrites If They Attend State Of The Nations Address...

President John Dramani Mahama is set to deliver the State of the Nation�s address in Parliament in accordance with Article 67 of the Constitution on the 21st of February, 2013. The question being asked is whether the minority in parliament will attend the event following their previous boycotts. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is challenging the legitimacy of President Mahama following an electoral dispute; a petition which has been filed at the Supreme Court. They therefore decided not to take part in any activity that will acknowledge President Mahama as the President. They have so far boycotted the President�s inaugural service as well as vetting of his ministerial nominees and the approval process by Parliament of vetted Minister designates. Some of the minority members in parliament who were interviewed are indecisive on whether to attend or not due to their previous stand. Mr. Paul Abrampah Mensah, Programmes Officer at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) says he will condemn any boycott of the NPP because everything that happens in parliament is backed by the constitution of Ghana and has advised the NPP to abide by the constitution and attend the State of the Nations Address because �they belong to a constituency first before a political party�. He said before they will even decide to attend or not, they should sample views from their constituencies whether they were in favor of their previous boycotts and whether it brought any development in their constituency. Speaking to Shamima Muslim on Eye witness news, Citi FM�s news analysis programme, the Programmes Officer of CDD said: �They should consider whether they have sampled the views of people from their constituencies to see whether they back their resolve to boycott Parliament. We know they belong to a political party but first they belong to a constituency. I don�t support it and will never support it. If we really are parliamentarians, then we don�t have any fears; we should just abide by the constitution. Let us just back the constitution and then when the Supreme Court decides, we will go by it�� Meanwhile, Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Alidu Seidu says the NPP will be seen as inconsistent if they decide to attend the President�s State of the Nations address. According to him, based on their previous decision; challenging the legitimacy of the President, Ghanaians will see them as hypocrites if they change their stance, adding �they are stuck between a rock and a hard place�. Speaking on the same platform, Dr. Seidu added however, that the NPP should stop the boycott, attend to their duties as parliamentarians and continue with the court case at the same time. �I believe that they need to be part of the process to make Ghana�s democracy holistic in nature� he added.