NDC will not ‘burn’ over minority leadership change – George Loh

Former Member of Parliament for North Dayi, George Loh, is optimistic that the National Democratic Congress (NDC), will bounce back stronger in the wake of the brouhaha surrounding the changes in the minority leadership.

He believes the party will come out unscathed and not divided as perceived by political opponents.

Speaking on The Big Issue on Citi TV/Citi FM with Selorm Adonoo, the former MP said, “We are not in normal times, but we will solve the issue. In all these, NDC has been through this over and over again. When we went to Congress what didn’t people expect after the Congress? People were waiting for the party to burn, armageddon. But we have had relative peace in the party since then”.

“Until this little turmoil came up, which we will surmount easily, this one too we will scale. When these things happen, the party gets stronger”.

Mr. Loh indicated that he is not surprised by the new appointments adding that the party’s National Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah hinted of the changes months ago.

“If they [national executives] had done it [change] on January 7, 2021, there wouldn’t have been any problem. It’s an issue now because time has elapsed and people have assumed continuation. We are not in normal times, the new appointments that have been made by the new national executives, for me were not a surprise.

“The National Chairman [Johnson Asiedu Nketiah] had already signalled that there will be some changes… I knew two weeks before time that Governs Agbodza was going to be Whip. The only thing I wasn’t sure about was if Haruna Iddrisu was going to be retained as Minority Leader or not. To be very frank, this process started way before 2020,” the former legislator emphasised.

He entreated party members and MPs to remain calm as the Council and Elders moves to resolve the issue.

“Let’s allow the Council of Elders to do its work by resolving the issue,” he urged.

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 has called on both sides to cease fire.