The National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, says the party is not fragmented despite the uproar that greeted changes they made in their leadership in Parliament.
According to him, the NDC is still united adding that the changes have been welcomed by majority of the NDC membership.
“The NDC is not fragmented at all, it’s still a very united party. The truth about every decision is that every change comes along with new gainers, so you will definitely have some reactions. But the change has been welcomed by majority of NDC members across the country, I guess even here [UK]. The reshuffle has brought some new excitement on the front of NDC,” Mr. Asiedu Nketiah said when he addressed some supporters of the party in the UK.
He hinted that the party took the decision to reshuffle its minority leadership as far back as 2021 but had to hold on due to its election petition case.
“This leadership ought to have been reshuffled around March 2021. I explained to Ghanaians that because of our court case, we didn’t feel like proceeding with that work. And I indicated clearly that it was work in progress, and that somewhere along the line, we will come out to indicate to Ghanaians who our next leadership will be. And so I’m surprised that people were surprised about the move. In fact, we were running late for the changes,” he recounted.
The National Chairman of NDC said the new leadership reflects a regional balance than it used to be.
He stated that the party will also make more appointments.
“There’s a whole lot of appointments that will be made not just Parliament,” he said.
According to him, the changes will not affect the fortunes of the outgoing leadership.
“Haruna Iddrisu is so powerful in his constituency and I doubt if anyone will contest him during the primaries. The only person who will be contested is Muntaka Mubarak, and we didn’t think that these changes will affect his fortunes of winning the primaries. Klutse Avedzi will not contest in the primaries,” the NDC National Chairman stated.
There have been some disagreements amongst the Minority caucus after the party replaced Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu with Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson.
Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, MP for Ellembelle also replaced Ketu North MP, James Klutse Avedzi as the Deputy Minority Leader while Kwame Governs Agbodza replaced Asawase MP, Muntaka Mubarak as the Minority Chief Whip.
Some MPs signed a petition to reject the decision of the party over lack of consultation. Another set of MPs also petitioned the leadership of the NDC to ignore calls for the reshuffling to be reversed.
The Council of Elders of the NDC subsequently called on both sides to cease fire.