Minority Leadership Changes: Asiedu Nketiah, Fifi Kwetey took unilateral decision - Edward Bawa

The Member of Parliament for Bongo, Edward Bawa, has challenged the party’s Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, and its General Secretary, Fifi Kwetey, to show proof of the decision taken by National Executive Committee (NEC) or the Functional Executive Council (FEC) leadership in the changes in parliament.

The MP insisted that there are no records to show that the NEC of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) or FEC, which is the highest decision-making body after congress, took the decision to reshuffle the leadership of the minority caucus in parliament.

“Decisions of the party are reserved for three bodies: Congress, NEC and FEC. The question is that at which level was this decision taken? I spoke to top members of the Functional Executive Committee and they indicate to me that even at the last FEC meeting, which was on Tuesday 17th January, 2023, the issue was never on their agenda, and when the meeting’s attention was drawn to it that the issue (reshuffle) was not on the agenda, it was said that it was not up for discussion. So, which of the three bodies took that decision and that is one of the things we want to know,” he asked while speaking to the Morning Show host of Kumasi-based Oyerepa TV, Kwesi Parker-Wilson.

The Bongo MP, who is incensed over the reshuffle, argued further that during the composition of the leadership of the Minority caucus in the 7th parliament, the party first presented names of the nominees to be accepted by the caucus before making the names public.

This, he believes, amounted to proper consultation with and engagement with the MPs.

“When the party presented the names to us, people had the opportunity to voice their concerns to us. So, even before the names were announced, there was an engagement with the caucus first and this was in 2017 when I come to parliament first.

“A similar thing happened in 2021 and the caucus agreed to maintain the Haruna Iddrisu-led leadership because they managed to shore up the numbers on our side from 106 to 137. And it didn’t end there; all regional caucuses were given the opportunity to go back and decide whether we want to maintain the leadership and we voted on every one of them and the general decision of the regional caucuses was that we should still maintain the leadership. So, we felt that we should still continue with the practice,” he stressed.

The NDC has been experiencing different factions within it since the announcement of the change in the party’s leadership in parliament, including some Members of Parliament also voicing out their shock at the decision which they say, was not run by them.

On Tuesday, January 24, 2022, the NDC sent a letter signed by its General Secretary, Asiedu Nketiah, to the Speaker of Parliament, announcing a major shakeup in its leadership in parliament.

In the letter, the party named Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson as the new minority, to be deputised by Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah.

The new Minority Chief Whip has been named Kwame Governs Agbodza, while the two Deputy Chief Whips: Ahmed Ibrahim and Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe-Ghansah, were retained.

AE/BOG