[Update] NDC MPs emergency meeting with party leadership over shakeup rescheduled

An emergency meeting by the NDC Minority Members of Parliament with party leadership following the disagreement over the latter’s decision to change the leadership of the Minority Caucus has been postponed.

The meeting that was fixed for Thursday, January 26 would now be held on next week Tuesday, February 7.

The meeting would have afforded the leadership of the National Democratic Congress the opportunity to convince its protesting Members of Parliament to buy into its decision to change the leadership of the Minority in the House.

It was convened by the outgoing Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka to address the rancour the changes brought about and restore calm among agitated members of the party.

This follows a petition signed by some 48 NDC Members of Parliament to the party’s national executives to reverse the shuffling of the Minority leadership in Parliament.

The MPs felt slighted by the party’s failure to consult the parliamentary caucus before shaking up their leadership.

The party, in a letter made public on Tuesday, replaced Haruna Iddrisu as the Minority Leader with Dr Cassiel Ato Forson. It also named Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah and Kwame Agbodza as the new Deputy Minority Leader and Chief Whip respectively.

But the Members of Parliament who have expressed their disapproval said the decision is unpopular and must be reversed.

One of these vocal MPs is the MP for Tamale Central, Murtala Mohammed who questioned the move and said the party is “only taking away the most experienced leaders and bringing the less experienced ones. Nobody told them we are dissatisfied with the leadership.”

Many of the MPs said they were taken by surprise in what some political commentators have called a coup.

The petitioners are therefore calling for consultation even if the changes would stand.

For instance, Member of Parliament for Agotime Ziope, Charles Agbeve is demanding explanations from the party echelon.

“So one would have thought that if there is going to be a shake-up like this, there would have been some engagements and that engagement would have watered down the shock and surprise,” he told TV on Wednesday.

“You will know there is going to be some changes here and there and then people will make inputs and suggestions but this was not done and I will like to know what went into this thinking. I will want some explanations that will give all of us reasons to support it.”

It is however not clear if the National Chairman Asiedu Nketiah and the General Secretary Fifi Kwetey who led the reshuffling exercise will be attending Thursday’s meeting.

On Tuesday, Fifi Kwetey who is a former Member of Parliament himself gave the strongest indication yet that the party leadership would not reverse the decision.

He said the party will proceed with the leadership changes when Parliament resumes in February.

“The leadership of the party at the highest level has taken a decision and that is just what it is. You cannot set up a precedent where decisions by the leadership of the party are now going to be an issue of the caucus. The leadership of the party in Parliament is appointed by the leadership of the party. It is not something that is done by the caucus of the party,” he told Accra-based Citi FM.

National Chairman of the party, Asiedu Nketiah has been explaining the executives’ decision citing regional balance and economic issues ahead of the 2024 general elections.

“We know for instance that going into election 2024, the economy is going to be the major battle ground and so 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.

Meanwhile, over 70 Members of Parliament have also signed a document supporting the changes with the new leadership holding its first press conference on Thursday, January 26.