Minority leadership needs overhaul – Gyampo

Professor Ransford Gyampo says the leadership of the Minority in Parliament needs a complete makeover.

According to him, the essence of a hung parliament as desired by Ghanaians will be lost if the NDC does not change its leadership in the House.

The call comes on the back of the uproar in the opposition party following the approval of some ministerial nominees.

A member of the Appointments committee Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa resigned in the wake of the controversy.

“What is going on in the NDC NOW, isn’t about power struggle. It’s about the backfiring of the perpetuation of unwise politics of convenience, that satisfies the selfish needs of the party’s leadership in Parliament, and ignores the sacrifice of their foot soldiers, the real owners of the party.,

“The outcome of the 2020 Parliamentary Election was a marching order from the Ghanaian sovereign constituents to their elected parliamentarians, particularly from the minority group, to go take tough stance that checks the executive arm of government and keeps it on its toes. Striking inexplicable deals behind the scenes, just for the purposes of supporting governmental moves and nominations that ought to be looked at with much trepidation, weren’t part of the marching orders,” the University of Ghana lecturer wrote in an article.

He stressed: “Something must be done to the leadership of the minority group in parliament. The current NDC leadership in parliament isn’t the same leadership that fought for the principles of secret balloting to be respected in the election of Speaker of Parliament. This is not the leadership that snatched the Speakership of Parliament from the NPP.

“They must either be brought back on track or there should be a total overhaul. If this won’t be done by the party’s leadership outside parliament, the grassroots must do so. The survival of the party and its fortunes in any future election, is contingent on a timeous response to this selfishness being displayed in Parliament, that disregards the fact that some even had to die to produce the kind of Hung Parliament we now have.

“Reinvigorating the current Hung parliament to be able to play its role as countervailing authority to the powers of the executive, is also dependent on how responsive the party takes the call for an overhaul of its leadership in parliament”.

He also commended Bolga Central MP Isaac Adongo for speaking up against the approval of the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta

“The two MPs who have so far demonstrated that they have conviction, must be saluted. It doesn’t lie in the mouth of those who have benefitted from the politics of convenience of the minority group, to critique the action of those who have taken exception to the conduct of their leaders in Parliament”.