ACEPA warns NPP over attempt to shake up parliamentary leadership

The Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Dr. Rasheed Draman, has expressed worry over the governing NPP’s attempt to shake up its parliamentary leadership without extensive consultation with the majority caucus of the house.

Dr. Draman therefore urged the NPP to take lessons from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) after the party caused changes in its parliamentary leadership.

According to media reports, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the deputy majority leader, was expected to take Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu’s place as majority leader. However, this decision was subsequently postponed to conduct more thorough deliberations.

The announcement seems to have divided the Majority Caucus members, with some advocating for the reshuffle and others against it.

Also, the “proposed change in the parliamentary leadership” item on the agenda paper for the party’s February 19 crunch meeting was dropped abruptly, according to a member of the national executive council, Andy Appiah-Kubi.

Reacting to the development on Citi FM, Dr. Dramani said, “Nobody can take away the involvement of political parties in selecting leaders for their caucus and for me, I am just surprised the NPP has not learned anything from what happened with the NDC’s leadership change. Why would [Osei] Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who has done so much for the party, our Parliament, and the country, be treated like this? If you want to change him, have a conversation with him.”

Read also: ‘I won’t support any changes in parliamentary leadership’ – Andy Appiah-Kubi

He added that the party would not have faced any rejection if it had engaged the caucus.

“If there were consultations and discussions within the party, we could have avoided this debacle, and they are now blaming the media for it. Who put that thing on the party’s meeting agenda? If you make a quick comparison with what happened with the NDC, it is clear that the Caucus is divided.

“What they should have done was have a meeting with the Caucus and put out reasons why there should be a change. In a conversation like that, there will certainly be people who will disagree and others who will agree, but at the end of the day, we would not have had what we are having now. If they need to break the 8, what they need is unity,” he satetd.