Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam George has said there is nowhere in the NDC constitution that permit the national executives of the party to elect leadership for parliament.[ads2]
This comes following the party’s changes in its leadership in Parliament with Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson replacing Haruna Iddrisu as the minority leader.
The changes has created a serious unrest in the NDC with some minority caucus expressing their disappointments with the way and manner the changes were done.
As a top member of the NDC, Sam George believes the changes could have been done in a more tidier way to prevent unnecessary confusion in the party especially now that they are preparing for primaries.
Sam George said “Many of us had eggs on our faces, we thought [the letter announcing the changes] was fake until [Asiedu Nketia] came to say yes indeed they wrote that letter. Even in Senior High school, the headmaster doesn’t sit in his office and just appoint who becomes head boy, right now they do manifesto, they do voting,
“I remember very well in that meeting of the 4th of January, this issue came up about how our leadership in Parliament is being selected or elected. You look at best practices across the world, caucuses actually elect their leaders and so we decided as a caucus to go ahead and put together a draft that would then codify on paper what the processes for the selection of leaders of our caucus should be. Unfortunately, we haven’t worked on it or carried it through and couldn’t get it ratified at the last congress.[ads3]
“So today, it is left to the convention. Those who say that there is nowhere in NDC’s constitution where it says MPs must be consulted, there is nowhere in our constitution too where it says that the national executives should elect leadership for parliament. The convention has also been an engagement. We have run this by convention where the national executives had chosen but they had engaged the caucus.
“Why you need to engage the caucus is to prevent what were are seeing now. Because what you need as an authority as a leader in Parliament is legitimacy from behind you. That legitimacy from behind you is from consensus. NDC Council of elders must step in quickly, and call the outgone leaders, I have been told the Council called members of the outgone and leadership and spoke to them. But I hold the view that the way to resolve this matter is first and foremost, within the next 24 hours, our Council of Elders calling the two groups, the Haruna Iddrisu group and the Ato Forson group into one room.
“Our leaders should call both sides and call the national executives especially the national chair and the General Secretary and let us build a road map that takes the consultation that the national executives have done a step further of engaging the caucus.”[ads4]
He added “I know Haruna very well. I have been called a Haruna boy in the Chamber, they call me Muntaka boy, I don’t have a problem with it, the same way they call me Asiedu Nketia’s boy, I don’t have a problem with it. The Haruna I know and the way this matter has been handled even if today, the decision is taken that you are reversing it, he won’t take it because the manner in which this has been done could have been done tidier. For me, that is one of the points I think as a party we must all agree on, there is nobody who is infallible.
“This could have been done in a tidier manner especially given the stature of the individuals involved. Muntaka is the longest-serving Whip in Ghana’s Parliament, 11 years for both sides, Haruna is an institution. So the manner in which this has been done cannot, with the greatest of respect to Asiedu Nketia and Fifi Kwetey, be said to have been the tidiest. We must as a people and as a party be willing to concede where we were not 100 percent. It is the only way we can move forward when concessions are made.”
“The substance or capacity of Ato Forso to lead is not the issue, nobody is questioning that,” he told TV3 on Thursday, January 26.[ads5]
