The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, says Ghanaians did not give the opposition party enough power to reject some of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s ministerial nominees.
Although he believes some of the nominees performed abysmally in their former role and should not have been re-appointed, he said the NDC in Parliament lacked the capacity to fail the said appointees.
He said Ghanaians should rather vent their anger and frustrations at the appointing authority.
“Ghanaians did not give us power to appoint ministers. They have not given us sufficient power to fail ministers. So that should be made very clear. If Ghanaians had given us the power to appoint ministers, we would be in government.
“Ghanaians have chosen that, you are the person we want. We believe in your judgement as Akufo-Addo and he has exercised his judgement in retaining a Finance Minister, and you’re coming to accuse us. You are not accusing the person who did the nomination,” he said.
Prior to the approval of the ministers-designate, there were calls from some Civil Society Organisations and sections of the public for some of the nominees to be failed for not impressing at the vetting.
The Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Appointments Committee vehemently opposed the nomination of three appointees – Hawa Koomson, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah and Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto – on various counts which included being untruthful to the Committee and misconducting themselves in their public lives.
But the Minority Caucus in Parliament failed to marshal enough MPs to push their decision through during the plenary.
This infuriated the NDC foot soldiers and leading members of the party including Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi who accused the Minority leadership in Parliament of betrayal.
“Do you think that if Ken Ofori-Atta had been rejected then the next person would be Ato Forson? If Ofori-Atta is rejected, the same Nana Akufo-Addo will nominate and he may nominate a worse person than Ofori-Atta. So if you have any blame, put it on the person who did the nomination.
“Even if we all (NDC MPs) voted against him, he will still be a minister. So the problem is not with the approval, the problem is with his nomination”
The NDC General Secretary stated that the NDC as a party was very disappointed by the first approval of ministers.
The veteran politician further said even if the Minority MPs had succeeded in rejecting some of the nominees, there is no law that bars the President from re-nominating the candidate for the same portfolio.
The former Wenchi West MP indicated that Ghanaians denied the NDC of constituting a government during the 2020 election and it will be unfair to accuse the NDC Caucus in Parliament of not being able to reject some appointees.
President Akufo-Addo is yet to release the list of Deputy Ministers for his second term and with the controversy that surrounded the vetting and approval of substantive sector nominees, it is unlikely to be a smooth sail for the individuals to be appointed.