Former Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Muhammed Mubarak, has finally agreed to the decision by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to reshuffle the Minority front bench in Parliament.
The change of decision follows intervention by former President John Dramani Mahama who reportedly held discussions with the Member of Parliament for Asawase.
In a Facebook post, the former Chief Whip wrote “to all our supporters within and without. I had a lengthy meeting with my big brother, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, on Saturday evening over the parliamentary reshuffle. I want to, first of all, thank him for his words of advice and encouragement to me as a younger brother”.
“His Excellency’s intervention has brought an end to all the brouhaha associated with the reshuffle.”
“We are in the interest of our party NDC. We need to move on as a party and channel all our energies towards the 2024 elections.
“I thank all our chiefs, Queen Mothers Imams, and supporters for your prayers and solidarity. I pray for Allah’s guidance in all our affairs. Long live NDC long live Ghana,” he concluded.
His acceptance follows after swerving a meeting scheduled between Minority Caucus and the leadership of their party on Tuesday.
However, former Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu has refused to comment on the reshuffle and swerved parliament since the issue sparked.
He further failed to appear before any meeting organised by the party.
Haruna Iddrisu and Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, former Minority leader and Minority Whip respectively were missing in the meeting between the National Executives, the Council of Elders of the NDC, and the Minority Caucus in Parliament on Monday, February 6, 2023.
The meeting which took place at the DF Annan Auditorium in Parliament had stalwarts of the party including the Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and his General Secretary, Fifi Kwetey, Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, among others present.
Others at the meeting included former Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzi, and former Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adzaho.
Addressing the media after the meeting, the National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah said the concerns raised have offered the party the opportunity to establish a framework for the running of the Minority caucus in Parliament.
“You can see from the enthusiasm that the challenges that arose from the announcement of the new leadership of our Caucus have all been resolved.”
The Chairman also disclosed that the party has learned some key lessons from the row that accompanied the announcement of the reshuffle and has led to the formulation of a framework to determine the leadership of the Caucus in the future.
“The challenges that we have been through in the few days have produced very beneficial results and it has led to the formulation of a framework for leading our Caucus in Parliament
“One of the takeaways from this meeting is for us to go and quickly expedite action for the formulation of a framework of leading our Caucus in Parliament in the future.”
Meanwhile, one of the petitioners who called for a suspension of the reshuffle for further engagements, Dr. Dominic Ayine said the group will support the new leaders in the discharge of their duties.
Cassiel Ato Forson replaced Haruna Iddrisu as the Minority Leader on January 24.
The meeting comes after the resistance that greeted the reshuffle of the leadership of the Minority which saw Haruna Iddrisu removed as Minority leader and replaced with Cassiel Ato-Forson.
There was a division among members of the group following a reshuffle of its leadership by the national executives of the NDC.
As part of the leadership changes, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, MP for Ellembelle replaced Ketu North MP, James Klutse Avedzi as the Deputy Minority Leader while Kwame Governs Agbodza replaced Asawase MP, Muntaka Mubarak as the Minority Chief Whip.
National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, said the party is not fragmented despite the uproar that greeted changes they made in their leadership in Parliament.
According to him, the NDC is still united adding that the changes have been welcomed by majority of the NDC members.
Some MPs signed a petition to reject the decision of the party over lack of consultation. Another set of MPs also petitioned the leadership of the NDC to ignore calls for the reshuffling to be reversed.
By V incent Kubi