It was a rushed decision - Afenyo-Markin reacts to Okudzeto's resignation

The MP for Effutu, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, has described the decision by colleague MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa to resign from the Appointments Committee of Parliament as not properly thought through.

He explained that it is unfortunate that the North Tongu legislator did not give time to his thoughts on this decision.

“I think that with the experience Mr. Ablakwa has, he should have chosen another route because I think he has miscalculated [his decision]. What happens to him if he becomes a leader someday and his members decide to break ranks. We have a system that when you disagree, you use and move on. It is really some strange things we are seeing now. It is quite unfortunate.

“I don’t disagree with an individual having a principle but marry it with the principle of the body you subscribe to be a member of. Your principle must interlock with the principle of the collective [good]. It is a constitutional imperative. A member of a committee can’t just get up and say I am resigning. You can do it, but these things are done with the leadership, so they can be resolved and handled. So, it will be politically incorrect within the principle we work with,” reports citinewsroom.com.

In the early hours of Wednesday, March 31, 2021, news emerged that Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa had written to the Speaker of Parliament, announcing his decision to resign as a member of the Appointments Committee.

Only stating the move to personal reasons and principles, the now-former member of the Committee that saw to the approval of all the ministerial nominees by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, didn’t give any other specific reasons for his decision.

However, some people have posited that his move is a registration of his no confidence in the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu.

Speaking on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News, the Deputy Chairman of the Appointments Committee of Parliament said that his colleague could have found other ways of dealing with the matter than quitting.

Also, he expressed similar concerns about the way Isaac Adongo, who is the Member of Parliament for Bolga Central, broke ranks with the Minority caucus over Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta’s approval.

Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin stressed that he could have also handled things much better and differently.

“With Adongo, what he did amounted to political mischief. If he was serious about what he said in the media, he has every right to do so on the Floor of the house and use the system in Parliament to do so,” he explained.

According to him, it gets even more worrying the cracks that are showing up in the Minority in Parliament, praying that a resolution to the fracas is arrived at soon.

“If you are not happy with your leader, and you want a leadership change, you find a better way of dealing with it. You don’t go public in an attempt to fight your own internal battle, you end up destroying the image of the very institution that you are part and parcel of. But this is politics, it is unfortunate, but I pray that as a party, they find a better way of resolving their own issues,” he said.