Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang
The debate on the motion to thank the President for the message on the State of the Nation in Parliament was suspended for one-hour yesterday after devolving into a rancor with fiery scenes.
It all started when the Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, in an attempt to fend off attacks on Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of parading old visionless leadership for Ghanaians to patronise.
According to him, the 2024 NDC flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, and his running mate, Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang, are nothing but an old wine in a new bottle, representing the country’s past rather than its future.
“It is the same old NDC. It is the same John Mahama. Perish the thought; should he even get the opportunity, he has only four years constitutionally.
“There will be no sense of urgency in him because he has nothing to lose. Even if you look at his choice of running mate, he could not get somebody that one could say that look they are planning for the future.
“The person is over 70 years old. They have no succession plan. From day one, their government will be in crisis. They want to pick the very old person who could not perform at the Education Ministry,” Mr. Afenyo-Markin stated.
This enraged members of the Minority who began banging on their tables and screaming at the Majority Leader to retract the word ‘old’.
“Withdraw! Withdraw!! Withdraw!!!” they shouted across the aisle, disrupting proceedings.
They also criticised Mr. Afenyo-Markin for calling the NDC running mate ‘old’, and described the comment as ‘despicable’.
NDC MP for Ketu South, Abla Dzifa Gomashie, later at a press conference said the use of the word ‘old’ to describe Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang was unacceptable.
“The examples that have brought me to be a Member of Parliament include when you count 10 people Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang, a former Minister of State for Education.
“For him to change the discussion on the floor to attack this woman the way in which he did is totally unacceptable,” she stressed.
However, the Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, urged the Minority members to be accommodative as they first attacked the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Dr. Bawumia.
“If you have listened to the SONA debate, consistently and repeatedly, our colleagues have been coming after our flagbearer, Dr. Bawumia.
“None of them spoke without referencing Dr. Bawumia, making a sort of aspersions and allegations against. We heard him; the Minority Leader himself also did the same. Multiple times, he attacked Dr. Bawumia,” he pointed out.
Withdrawal
When sitting of the House resumed, the Majority Leader retracted the word ‘old’ but insisted that the NDC had paraded visionless leadership.
“If you look at how they have paraded their leadership, clearly they have not put in place visionary leadership for the country’s long term future.
“The flagbearer constitutionally has just a term, should that happen, Mr. Speaker, under normal circumstances, they should have given us a running mate who will give a future to Ghana, like we have given a flagbearer who represents the future of Ghana,” he pointed out.
Mr. Afenyo-Markin continued, “You have brought a running mate who retired from UCC as VC, came to the Ministry of Education to perform abysmally. The E-Blocks, she could not complete them; she did only 29.
“Today you say the running mate should be the future of this country? Mr. Speaker, they could not introduce the landing beach project for the Central Region.
“They failed the Central Region and today, they say we should allow them the space, it is not possible. Dr. Bawumia represents the future of our country,” he argued.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House