The former Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, says the leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has rubbished assertions by the National Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and General Secretary, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, that the ousted leaders were consulted.
He has since dared the leadership to mention the name of the party elder who was sent to consult them (old leadership) on the move to change the leadership of the minority.
Speaking to journalists yesterday, Muntaka said “I heard some of the officers saying that some elders were sent to talk to us. I will be happy for it to be mentioned, which elder was sent to talk to me. Because nobody was sent to talk to me.”
According to the Asawase legislator, he is on almost all the decision making bodies of the party, as well as the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, but at no meeting was that agenda discussed.
As such, he firmly insisted that, “It is clear that it is a letter, yes, written by the General Secretary, but the decision may just be just the decision of a few people in the party.”
The decision to reshuffle the front bench of the minority appears to be of no much concern, but the manner in which it was done seems not to have gone down well with Alhaji Muntaka.
A meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, January 31, 2023 between the Minority and the party leadership to settle some differences.
Muntaka Mubarak was in the company of Zebilla East legislator, Cletus Avoka, who described the new appointments as premature and demanded the suspension of same.
CHAIRMAN CLAIMS
The Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah in an interview had justified the change in leadership of the party in Parliament, as well as the timing.
According to him, the change forms part of the reorganisation process to help the party capture political power during the 2024 elections.
Touching on the timing of the party’s decision and its intended effect, Mr. Nketiah stressed that the timing is in line with plans to fully prepare the party for the race ahead.
“In terms of why, what it tells you is that the only constant thing is change. Since the environment is changing, leadership must change along with the new environment,” he said.
General Mosquito explained further that as the days of the elections get closer, the debate on the floor of Parliament will change to issues on the economy, infrastructure and energy, hence it is important the NDC put the best in those fields to properly argue their stance.
“We know for instance that going into election 2024, the economy is going to be the major battle ground and many of the debates will focus on the economy. So you better put your best man in economy forward, that is what we have done.
“We also looked at energy. You know the petroleum and electricity challenges, so we needed to settle on Kofi Armah Buah, our former minister, to be the Deputy Minority Leader
“The other area is infrastructure, Kwame Agbodza being our man in infrastructure should play a key role that generally is what informed the changes” he added.
