Member of Parliament (MP) for Subin constituency, Eugene Boakye Antwi, has said that following the closure of the International Monetary Fund deal, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs who called for the dismissal of the Finance Minister in 2022 are waiting to hear from President Nana Akufo-Addo on the way forward.
Speaking on Top Story, Mr Antwi said that only the President has the executive powers to dismiss Mr Ken Ofori-Atta and thus their job as MPs was to expose the shortcomings of the minister and why he should not occupy his office.
“So far as we are concerned, we have demonstrated to the entire country, and the whole world that this is our decision or difficulty with the continued stay of Ken Ofori-Atta. We are waiting for the Majority Leader to come either convene a meeting or for the president to convene a meeting with the Majority caucus and tell us the way forward,” the Subin MP noted.
Mr Antwi added that “it is now up to the President to say, ‘look, based on what he has done, I am begging of you to let him continue or give me a few months and I will come back to you.’ I do not have the power to remove Ken, my job is to expose the failings, I have done that.”
In November 2022, some 98 NPP MPs demanded the immediate removal of the Finance Minister accusing him of economic mismanagement.
They went ahead to petition the President to either remove him or face a boycott in Parliament.
However, after a meeting, they acceded to President Akufo-Addo’s appeal to allow the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen, to stay in office till after the IMF negotiation is done.
Meanwhile, following the approval of Ghana’s IMF bailout, the Subin MP noted that questions about the way forward on the position of Mr Ofori-Atta should also be directed to the President.
“We stood with the president, and we have played our part. We demonstrated to him that the continuous stay of Ken at the Finance Ministry will not do well in electoral fortunes next year, and we continue to drum that home,” Mr Anwti noted.
Asked if the Majority Caucus has already done their investigation on who has the experience to take over from Mr Ofori Atta, he retorted “was Akufo-Addo experienced before becoming president? Was Ken Ofori-Atta experienced before becoming Finance Minister? Was I an experienced one before becoming an MP? We all learn on the job. Experience is not bought in the market. You learn. You learn to acquire experience by doing the job.”