The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has defended its decision to reshuffle the Parliamentary Minority Caucus Leadership saying the message ahead of the 2024 elections will be heavy on the economy.
The NDC in a letter to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin dated, Monday, January 23, 2023, stated that it had decided to replace Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu with Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson.
Also, Ellembelle MP, Kofi Armah Boah will replace James Klutse Avedzi as Deputy Minority Leader.
READ ALSO: NDC changes leadership in Parliament as Ato Forson replaces Haruna Iddrisu as Minority leader
Other changes include, Kwame Agbodza becoming the Chief Whip for the opposition side and will be deputised by Banda MP, Ahmed Ibrahim and Ada legislator, Comfort Doyo Ghansah respectively.
Explaining the reasons behind the changes, the chairman of the NDC Johnson Asiedu Nketia said it is part of the party’s reorganisation process ahead of the 2024 polls.
“We started re-organisation of our structures to be able to position ourselves to fight election 2024. We started more than a year ago. We started at the branch level. We have since done elections in about 40,000 branches and then from there we proceeded to the constituency level. We are done largely with all the constituencies. We have done regional elections and we just completed our national election, and the next is to look at our leadership in parliament. That is what we have just done”, he noted.
In terms of the timing, he said: “It’s in line with the way we are prosecuting the national reorganization. In terms of why? What it tells you is that the only constant thing is change”, adding: “Since the environment is changing, leadership must change along”.
Explaining what he meant by ‘environment’, he said: “We know, for instance, that going into election 2024, the economy is going to be the major battleground and, so, many of the debates will focus on the economy. So, you better put your best man in economy forward that is what we have done”.
“We also looked at energy. You know the petroleum and electricity challenges, so, we needed to settle on Kofi Armah Buah, our former minister to be the Deputy Minority Leader.
“The other area is infrastructure; Kwame Agbodza being our man in infrastructure should play a key role. That, generally, is what informed the changes”, Nketia pointed out.