Last month, Boko made some remarks that MPs were showboating instead of passing laws. This week, during a Kgotla meeting in Kgagodi, Boko emphasised that legislators should take charge rather than wait to ask a question in the House. “In Parliament, you would see an MP standing up to ask a minister if he is aware that a window is broken somewhere. Why are you asking? You want that broken window to be fixed, but can it be fixed when you rush to ask the question in Gaborone after two months instead of approaching the relevant parties to fix that window?” Boko questioned.
Boko said he understands questioning because people who ask questions already know the answers to their questions. “People who ask questions do not do so because they are naive; they mostly have ideas and suggestions. They mostly have what they believe should be solutions to whatever they are asking about,” Boko emphasised. He said people should learn to take responsibility and also contribute ideas that can address challenges. He said this applied to everyone who asked him questions, including residents of Kgaodi who took turns asking questions. Last month, during a High-Level Business Engagement Forum in Gaborone, Boko criticised legislators for not focusing on making laws that make doing business easier. “You see a lot of showboating taking place on the floor of Parliament, a lot of grandstanding, a lot of intellectual vacuity, people not doing what they’re supposed to do. They are asking questions, moving motions - what motions, what questions? Your job is to make laws; when you make laws, you bind the Executive,” Boko remarked then.
Boko had said that MPs spend 90% of their time in Parliament asking inconsequential questions such as asking when a window of a classroom at Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School is going to be fixed. “You have brought this to Parliament about a window? We are not saying it must not be fixed, but is this the right forum? Could you not go to the right authorities and tell them to fix it? You want to go to Parliament and spend time and temporal and financial resources so that people debate the fixing of a window?” Boko questioned. Defending their questions, MPs emphasised in the just-ended budget meeting that the questions they bring to Parliament are people’s concerns.
