The General Overseer of the Foursquare Gospel Church, Rev. Francis Sey, has appealed to the leadership of Parliament to prioritise the development of the country.

He says events that characterised the e-levy debate are shameful and reduces the level of confidence Ghanaians have in the leaders. Rev. Sey added that the reputation of the country on the international scene dwindles whenever such incidents occur.

Speaking on ‘Joy Time in His Presence’ on Joy FM, Rev. Sey noted that there should be some level of maturity from leadership of both the Majority and Minority caucuses to negotiate and dialogue to reach workable conclusions on issues.

“We could differ on issues, but the goal should be the same and together we build a nation. What we see on media, what we see happening in Parliament really doesn’t speak well of us, it doesn’t give confidence to the young people that this nation is being entrusted into [the hands of] people who are thinking about them and thinking about what happens in the next 30 years or 40 years,” he stated.

Proceedings in Parliament on Monday, December 20, 2021 were brought to a halt following the fisticuff among members of the two sides of the House.

The chaos erupted when the First Deputy Speaker allegedly tried to vacate his seat for the Second Deputy Speaker in order to partake in the ongoing voting exercise.

Following the incident, Parliament adjourned proceedings to January 18, thereby cutting short any attempt to approve or reject the e-levy Bill.

He underscored that “no political leader is living for himself or herself in this time; we are building for the future and that must preoccupy our conversation and that should be what we spend our energies on.”

“It is time to reconsider the way we’ve done politics in this country. Whoever wins power still needs a very significant part of the population to be able to have effective rule. Running a nation on winner-takes-all is no longer tenable.”

“What we need is consensus-building and it is my prayer that our leaders would begin to realise that as a nation, we are voting on the lines of consensus and so absolute majority, even if it is 80%, the 20% that didn’t vote or lost still play a very significant role and they all must be part of the decision making in putting the nation at where it’s supposed to be,” he suggested.