Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has dismissed suggestions that Members of Parliament (MPs) should be provided with bicycles instead of 4x4 vehicles to perform their duties.

Speaking at the Speaker’s Forum on Wednesday, March 4, Speaker Bagbin described the calls, reportedly made by some senior citizens, as “untenable” and based on a misunderstanding of Ghanaian parliamentary realities.

He noted that comparisons with officials in countries like the United Kingdom, where some leaders occasionally use bicycles, do not apply to Ghana.

“Recently, I listened to some of our senior citizens on GTV talking about MPs being given bicycles, not cars or four-wheel drives. The MPs have no problem with being given bicycles because you have been reducing a lot of load from their heads, because with a bicycle, you know how far you can reach.

"But it's because of this missing link between Parliament, the MPs, and our citizens. That will inform every senior person to call on TV for baskets to be given to MPs.

"And when you want to compare, it says so, but in the UK, we sometimes see a Prime Minister riding a bicycle. I'm a Ghanaian. I'm a Dagaba people and I'm asked to behave and act like a British. People get everything wrong,” he said.

Speaker Bagbin further stressed that Ghana should focus on its own systems and values rather than imitating others.

"We have degraded ourselves to the extent that we don't have much value for people to buy. And so, we keep on buying what they have, not what we have. We have to reset ourselves,” he added.