Mahama was not in support of minority walkout – Majority Leader

Majority Leader in Parliament of Ghana, Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu has said that information he gathered prior to the State of Nation Address which saw the minority MPs walkout, indicated that their action was well planned and executed.

According to him, plans by the minority side to stage a walkout few moments before the president’s address had the full backing of the party’s leaders except flagbearer John Dramani Mahama.

He said per information he gathered, the party met to finalise their decision prior to the State of Nation Address but the former president of Ghana who is the flagbearer of the opposition NDC opposed their decision to walk out before the president’s address.

The Majority Leader told Citi FM that, former president Mahama tried to educate his comrades about the repercussions of their decision.

He said, “...And my information again is that the leader of the party, the presidential candidate was giving some education to them that they shouldn’t walk out; that they should wait until the president said anything against them or that would go against them, that predicated their walkout perhaps it should be justifiable but just to walk out before the president starts, information reaching me is that the former president was not in support...”

Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu attributed the blame to some key leaders of the opposition party who according to him were the prime syndicates in the walkout Ghanaians witnessed in the Parliamentary Chamber yesterday.

“...I’m saying that my information is that, former President Mahama was against it but General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia was in support. He came to urge them to walk out. My information is that both the Chairman and the General Secretary urged that they should boycott...,” he further indicated.

In an attempt to demystify claims that the opposition NDC paid them back for boycotting the vetting of former president Mahama’s minister, his swearing-in, and State of Nation Address in 2013, Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu retorted that the reasons and scenarios were not the same.

He said, at the time, the NPP who were then in the minority questioned the legibility of John Dramani Mahama, who was then the president. Thus maintained that the minority’s act is wrong.