Mosquito Caught Pants Down
Questions have begun popping up as to why the Johnson Asiedu Nketia-led national leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) decided to maintain only two members of the immediate past leaders of the Minority side in Parliament.
According to some members of the party who are against the sudden demotions announced on Tuesday January 24, the national chairman and his cohorts deliberately spared the two deputy Minority Whips for obvious reason.
They argue that the Banda MP, who is from the same region (Bono Region) as Mr. Nketia, alias General Mosquito, especially was not affected by the changes because he is a close associate of the national chairman.
According to them, Ahmed Ibrahimserved as one of the campaign spokespersons for Mr. Nketia, during the national executive election held last December.
Indeed, The Anchor is aware Mr. Ahmed was one of the few MPs who went on the campaign trail, moving from one media house to the other, to campaign for the then national chairman aspirant.
In their view, the Ada legislator, Comfort Doyo Ghansah, who also doubles as a deputy Whip, was maintained to cover up to make the Banda MP’s stay unsuspicious.
They say the move was just a clear case of ‘scratch my back let me scratch your back’ and that the national chairman only reciprocated the gesture done him during the campaign by the MP.
In a statement signed by the NDC General Secretary, Fifi Kwetey, only the Chief Whip and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Asawase constituency, Mohammed Muntaka, was removed in that department of the leadership.
The experienced MP, who has become very influential in the NDC in Asawase, was replaced with the MP for Adaklu in the Volta Region, Kwame Agbodza.
According to the party, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has taken over from Haruna Iddrisu as the new Minority leader.
Ellembelle MP, Kofi Armah Buah, will replace James KlutseAvedzi as Deputy Minority leader.
“The new leadership would be charged to recommend consequential changes in the Ranking membership to Headquarters of the party for approval,” the party statement added.
The statement fell short of explaining the rationale behind the changes, but in a follow-up interview, the national chairman justified the change in leadership of the party in parliament.
According to him, the change forms part of the reorganization process to help the party capture political power during the 2024 elections.
“We started re-organization of our structures to be able to position ourselves to fight election 2024,” he said.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with JoyNews’ Blessed Sogah, he said the decision forms part of a nationwide restructuring process the party is undertaking.
“We started more than a year ago, we started at the branch level. We have since done elections in about 40,000 branches and then from there we proceeded to the constituency level. We are done largely with all the constituencies, we have done regional elections and we just completed our national election and the next is to look at our leadership in Parliament. That is what we have just done,” he said.
Meanwhile, some supporters of the NDC in Tamale in the Northern Region have massed up at the party’s regional office over the surprising shake-up in the party’s parliamentary leadership.
According to reports, the supporters say the decision will not augur well for the party. They want the leadership of the party to rescind the decision or face their wrath. They questioned why the Banda MP was left out of the equation.
The Coalition of National Democratic Congress Youth group in Tamale has also asked the leadership of the party to reverse the decision to remove Haruna Iddrisu as the Minority leader.
Failure to do so will keep the party in opposition, Convener of the group Abdul Rahaman Shaibu said.
Rahaman Shaibu added that the group finds the reasons that were given by the leadership of the party for the changes unreasonable.
The NDC should be prepared to remain in opposition, he said, adding “We find the reasons unreasonable.”
Source: Anchorghana
