FEC To Overturn NDC Decision On Minority Leadership Changes?

The Functional Executive Committee (FEC) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is reported to have met deep Tuesday night to consider the decision to change the leadership of the party in Parliament.

On Tuesday, January 24, the party announced the replacement of Tamale South Member of Parliament Haruna Iddrisu as Minority Leader.

Dr Cassiel Ato Forson of Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam Constituency was named to occupy the position going forward.

Ketu North’s James Klutse Avedzi was also replaced by Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah as Deputy Minority Leader.

Asawase MP Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak’s position as Minority Chief Whip was given to Governs Kwame Agbodza of Adaklu Constituency.

Banda MP Ahmed Ibrahim and Ada MP Comfort Doyoe Ghansah were, however, retained as the First Deputy Whip and Second Deputy Whip respectively.

The decision was heavily pilloried by some members of the Minority.

Speaking on TV3 on Tuesday, January 24, MPs Charles Agbeve and Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed said they were “flabbergasted” by the decision.

“It took me a long time to really appreciate the news because normally, the national executives will engage the leadership of Parliament and if leadership thinks the engagements, they can’t get to a consultation, they meet the whole caucus and so, I can count countless engagements between the caucus and the national executives on all issues,” Mr Agbeve said.

“Every single Member of Parliament is surprised,” Murtala Mohammed, on his part, said.

“And I can tell you that even those who have been proposed to take leadership, some of them are surprised that such a proposal is made without even consulting them.”

He hinted on News 360 that no major organ of the party was consulted before the decision was taken.

“This decision was not taken at NEC, it was not taken by Congress and it was not taken by FEC,” he revealed.

“As I talk to you FEC is meeting. In fact, this information came out before the meeting of FEC. So, the question is who took that decision?”

He said by the structure of the NDC, Congress is the highest decision-making body, followed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) and then FEC.

“I am saying that Congress never took that decision, NEC never took this decision, FEC never took this decision, so who took that decision?”

Some constituency executives, notably the Tamale South Constituency Chairman, are blaming National Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketia and General Secretary Fifi Fiavi Kwetey for the decision.

Abdul Rauf said the decision will not hold in his constituency, where outgoing Haruna Iddrisu is MP, and he knows what to tell electorates come 2024.

Meanwhile, the National Chairman has justified the decision as the best under the circumstances for the party.

The debates and the other discussions will focus on the economy so you need to put your best man in the economy forward, that is what we have done,” he told Accra-based Joy FM.

“We also looked at energy. These petroleum and electricity challenges and so we needed to settle on Kofi-Armah Buah, our former Energy Minister to be the Deputy Minority Leader and then the other area is infrastructure, Kwame Agbodza being our man in infrastructure should play a key role. So that generally is what informed the changes.”