Member of Parliament for Buem, Kofi Adams, has disclosed that the election of party leadership to represent the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in parliament has not been amply made clear in the party’s constitution.
According to him, this could possibly be the reason for the agitation and disgruntled stance of some members within the party following its reshuffling of leadership in parliament. He indicated that although the intervention by the Council of Elders and former President, John Mahama, has yielded great results, there is the need to look closely at having defined constitution to govern the party’s elections going forward.
“It’s good that they’ve drawn the party’s attention to a few things that we need to look at and have rules to govern such processes. We do not have clear rules as to how we elect our parliamentary leadership in our party. But we have had a certain process we have used… Our party’s constitution has not made clear how parliamentary group leadership is elected.”
Kofi Adams
Mr Adams noted that the resolution within the party on the issue of reshuffling was inevitable. He explained that changes by nature sometimes get resisted, either for good reasons or bad reasons and as such, the reaction that came along with the announcement of the changes in leadership is something normal and some missteps on the part of the party were taken advantage of to “drown the position of those who would not have felt so comfortable with the change”.
The Buem legislator noted that although the party has some convention, that is what is currently being challenged.
“When people challenged, they were challenging both the authority and the process, but you could not challenge the authority because there’s nothing that says the party leadership do not have the power to appoint parliamentary leadership. So, it has not been a clear process and that convention is what has been followed.”
Kofi Adams
Mr Adams reckoned that the NDC is a growing party and it is important that to a large extent, it has a laid-down process as to how the levels of consultation must be done with respect to who should be consulted in a reshuffle or in an initial appointment. To this, he expressed optimism that moving forward, this will be clearly stated.
“In terms of the resolution, I knew we would get here, I know we have elders [and] persons who when they speak people will have to listen and that is what happened. His Excellency the former President, John Dramani Mahama is a stalwart in the party, he’s the only living former President in our party, the Council of Elders equally have a lot of persons who have served this country, some in parliament to the highest position of Speaker, like the Rt Honorable Speaker Doe Adjaho and others… So, they hold a lot of respect in the party and country at large…”
Kofi Adams
Addressing disunity within the party
Commenting on the stance of some seventy two parliamentarians within the party who were insistent that due process wasn’t followed in relation to the reshuffle, Mr Adams highlighted that the issue has been equally resolved. Citing Dr Kwabena Donkor, MP for Pru East, as a case in point, he noted that during the meeting with the Council of Elders, Dr Donkor was well-composed and didn’t resist the resolution.
“Yesterday actually, the Member of Parliament for Pru East, Honorable Kwabena Donkor sat directly in front of me [and] he never resisted or raised an objection to anything that was discussed there… Indeed, the lead person for the petitioners spoke and said everything has been resolved as far as they are concerned and that is Dr Ayeni. He did not at that point arise to his feet say that ‘I disagree’.”
Kofi Adams
Mr Adams stated that despited the seeming dissatisfaction within the party, what is most important is that the issue has been resolved and Dr Ato Forson’s led group has been accepted.
“Nobody, including those who have been changed accept to the fact that they have been changed. They have concerns with the process and they may feel that the process according to them could have been neater and done better. That, you can’t take it from them, but they accept the fact that they are no more in leadership. That is a fact that nobody will challenge.”
Kofi Adams
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