Former president, John Dramani Mahama has expressed disappointment at members of the Minority Caucus in Parliament for going against the position of their leadership not to approve ministerial nominees made by President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
In a statement this morning, Mr. Mahama said the action of the Minority MPs is self-centred and a betrayal of the Ghanaian populace who had thrown their support behind the position taken by the Caucus leadership to compel the president to cut down the size of his government.
He urged that “those responsible for this betrayal must do some serious soul searching and learn to place national interest over personal interest”.
The former president also expressed disappointment at President Akufo-Addo for failing to downsize his government when the opportunity presented itself.
“Equally disappointing is the President’s refusal to seize the opportunity to realign and downsize his bloated government when the NPP flagbearer hopefuls and the Chieftaincy minister resigned”.
According to him, “Clearly in this time of crisis and excruciating hardships, President Akufo-Addo, his NPP administration and some of our MPs are out of tune with the mood of the Ghanaian people”.
While reiterating his position that government can run efficiently with less than 60 ministers, Mr. Mahama encourages members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Ghanaian populace who are disappointed by the action of the Minority MPs, which he described as insensitive, not to despair.
“For our grassroots members and all Ghanaians who are disappointed by this insensitivity, I urge you not to despair”.
He believes “2024 offers us an opportunity to work hard to defeat this reckless government that seeks to destroy our democracy and the very livelihoods of Ghanaians- an opportunity for us to work and build the Ghana we all want from January 07, 2025”.
Some Minority Members of Parliament broke ranks with the party yesterday and voted for the approval of 6 ministerial nominees made by President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The party had ordered all members of the Minority Caucus to stay in the House and block the approval of all 6 ministerial nominees to drum home its demand for reduction of the size of government.
In a February 19 statement giving the directive, the NDC said the president had been adamant to its call to cut down on the number of his appointees and thus, rejecting the approval of his nominations would compel him to do so.
However, some members of the party’s caucus defied its directive and voted for the approval of the nominees.
Before the House took the decision, in the evening of March 24, 2023, through secret ballot, both Minority and Majority caucuses had equal number of 136 members each present.
This means if the Minority members had adhered to the three-line whip issued by their leadership, the nominees would not have attained majority of the votes cast and would have stood rejected.
At the end of the voting, however, all six nominees obtained more than half of the votes cast and have sailed through the processes for appointment to their various portfolios.
