Public toilets forced me to quit parliament: ‘It’s annoying’ – Joseph Osei-Owusu

• Posted on February 14, 2024February 14, 2024
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The first deputy speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, has disclosed the various compelling reasons he has decided to quit his parliamentary job and not serve in any public office, revealing that chief among them was an issue concerning public toilets.

According to the Member of Parliament for the Bekwai constituency, which he has represented since 2009, after deep and prolonged consideration, he concluded that being a lawmaker or a public servant is worthless.

In an interview with GhOneTV, he recalled an interesting instances where his constituents threatened to vote against him if he failed to drain full public toilets in some of the communities in the constituency. In his view, the demand by his constituents smacked of irresponsibility because the toilet facilities in question were undeservedly built for them by the state with taxpayers’ money.

“It is your personal responsibility to provide a toilet facility for yourself. For some reason, we used state funds to build one for you, you use it and it is full, and then you come back, saying ‘come and drain it for me or else, I won’t vote’,” the MP stated.

Popularly called Jowise, Osei-Owusu said his constituents showed ingratitude by demanding that their public toilet be drained or they wouldn’t vote for him because “there is another community that does not have a public toilet at all.”

“What is even more annoying is that the people using the toilet facility pay for it. The community leaders collect that money and call it community funds. Even replacing bulbs. You build mechanized boreholes for communities, some come back and say they can’t pay the bills and ask you to come and pay the electricity bills. These are some of the things that make it difficult to be in public office,” he lamented.

Another factor that influenced his decision to quit lawmaking is “young people being way too abusive; their choice of words in discussions…, I think it’s enough”.

He, however, acknowledged that the state has failed to educate the citizenry enough to understand that governance involves responsibility, hence the incessant demand for help in everything.