The Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Professor Stephen Adei, has said the estimated $200 million cost of the 450-seat parliamentary chamber is not expensive.
He said the timing for the proposed project was bad and not a priority for the nation at the moment.
“I think that that cost of the building, and I’m saying as someone who has been building, it is not that expensive but it is wrong at this time in terms of national priorities and the needs of this nation”, he said on Accra-based Class FM.
“To say we’ve given you this place to meet and you’re going to spend about a quarter of a billion dollars when we cannot do roads, it shows a sense of insensitivity and I think the reaction of the media, even the rude one, is a good message to our politicians that Ghanaians will not tolerate them…” he said.
READ MORE: Construction of 450-seat parliament chamber is good use of money – NPP MP
According to him, “In leadership, you should be a model in how you behave; they got it wrong and their fingers have been burnt badly. For me, I never talked about it because I was expecting this backlash and if journalists and the bad boys are going to do this backlash, we’ll just watch it and see because the politicians must learn through the hard way and I think they’ve withdrawn it and must be withdrawn for decades because when they bring it back, they will see what the people will do to them”.
The proposed chamber, estimated to cost the taxpayer $200m is expected to start at the end of the year, Sir David Adjaye, the architect of the design had said.
The 450-seater chamber will come with a chapel, mosque, restaurant, and a museum.
Some Civil Society Organisations and Ghanaians described the chamber as “needless, unnecessary and stupid”.
A pressure group, OccupyGhana, called on the MPs to “abort plans” to build the chamber. The group said the Parliamentarians are being “inconsiderate” looking at the level of hardship in the country.
“We cannot believe that Parliament and its leadership would even contemplate something so inconsiderate at a time when so many Ghanaians still struggle in these difficult and trying times.
“Even sadder is the fact that it eats away at the confidence people have in the democratic process,” it said in a statement.
They contend there are important priorities the government has to focus on than to spend such a huge amount on a new parliamentary chamber hence the creation of a hashtag #DropThatChamber.
READ ALSO: Proposed 450-seat Parliament chamber is ‘stupid’ idea – Kofi Bentil
New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for the Bantama Constituency, Daniel Okyem Aboagye, justified the proposed construction.
But Professor Stephen Adei said the cost of the 450-seat parliamentary chamber is not expensive.
