Paul Aborampah Mensah, senior programs officer at the Centre for Democratic Development (CCD-Ghana), has advised the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to proceed cautiously with its intention to restructure the party’s parliamentary leadership.
The NDC, according to Mr. Aborampah, should have taken into account the ethnic views of some of the followers of the outgoing leaders in Parliament before making the decision to remove them, he added.
“We have to be very cautious in order not to read ethnic sentiments in every decision that we take. If you watch television yesterday, you would realise the NDC supporters were reading meaning into the decision.”
“Their sentiments were not that the party has replaced competent people, but their sentiments were such that their men from the Dagbon tradition have been sacked and some of them threatened not to receive the leadership of the NDC or attack them when they enter Tamale.
“So if they don’t handle it carefully it is not going to be an issue of reshuffling people in parliament…but my worry is the ethnocisation of the issues at this time and the sentiments expressed by the people of Tamale,” Mr Aborampah said
Mr. Aborampah made these remarks after NDC supporters in the Tamale South constituency surrounded the party’s headquarters on Tuesday and demanded that the choice to replace Haruna Iddrisu as the Minority Leader with Cassiel Ato Forson immediately be reversed.
Some party members gathered on Wednesday at the party office in the Ashanti region’s Asawase constituency to seek the return of Minority Whip Muntaka Mubarak, who had also been replaced by party leader Kwame Agbodza.
Meanwhile, the NDC has justified the shake-up in its leadership in Parliament despite criticisms from its own members. The party said the decision is apt and works best for collective other than individual interests.
“This decision was taken after wide consultation. If you look at the apex leadership of the party, that consultation was done. In terms of parliamentary, the group that is widely consulted, that consultation has been done.”
