The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has rejected suggestions that Members of Parliament (MPs) should be provided with bicycles instead of 4×4 vehicles to perform their official duties.
Speaking at the Speaker’s Forum on Wednesday, March 4, Bagbin described the proposal—reportedly raised by some senior citizens during discussions on Ghana Broadcasting Corporation’s GTV—as unrealistic and based on a misunderstanding of the realities faced by lawmakers in Ghana.
According to the Speaker, comparisons between Ghanaian public officials and leaders in countries such as the United Kingdom, where some politicians occasionally commute by bicycle, fail to account for differences in context, infrastructure, and responsibilities.
“Recently, I listened to some of our senior citizens on GTV talking about MPs being given bicycles, not cars or four-wheel drives,” Bagbin said. “The MPs have no problem with being given bicycles because you would have reduced a lot of load from their heads. With a bicycle, you know how far you can reach.”
However, he noted that such suggestions highlight what he described as a “missing link” between Parliament, MPs, and citizens, which sometimes leads to proposals that do not reflect the demands of parliamentary work.
Bagbin also cautioned against the tendency to compare Ghana’s governance structures with those of Western countries without considering local realities.
“When you want to compare, they say in the UK we sometimes see a Prime Minister riding a bicycle. I am a Ghanaian. I am a Dagaba person and I’m asked to behave and act like a British person. People get everything wrong,” he said.
The Speaker emphasized that Ghana must prioritize its own systems, values, and governance structures rather than constantly attempting to replicate models from other countries.
“We have degraded ourselves to the extent that we don’t have much value for what we have. So we keep on buying what they have, not what we have. We have to reset ourselves,” Bagbin added.
His remarks come amid ongoing public discussions about government spending, accountability, and the resources allocated to public officials in Ghana. The debate has increasingly focused on how to balance efficiency, cost management, and the operational needs of elected leaders.