The Member of Parliament for Bortianor-Ngleshie Amanfro, Sylvester Tetteh, has underscored the position taken by the opposition Members of Parliament, describing their attempt to reject ministerial nominees as an act to score political points.
According to Mr. Tetteh, the NDC MPs have no position beneficial to the country but instead utilized the platform given to communicate their political strategies.
“And for me, it is obvious that the NDC did not have a position beneficial to this country except for their political expediency,” he asserted.
Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana programme on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, Mr. Tetteh suggested that the calls from the leadership of the NDC and its parliamentarians to refuse the appointment of these ministers cannot be an issue of cutting waste and protecting the economy, considering the importance of the positions needed to be filled.
“It is a wrong position to take in the first place, at least, where we have deputy ministers you can say that substantive ministers can work because, of course, the National Security Minister does not have a deputy, we can make that argument..but to say wholesale, don’t approve them….this country should live without an Agric Minister, a Trade Minister…in times like this?” he quizzed.
He indicated that ministers who have been approved in Parliament now are Members of Parliament which therefore requires a less financial obligation to aid their work.
“The two ministers, Minister for Agric, and Minister for Trade were all non-MPs. Think about it. The previous ones — this time, he [Akufo-Addo] has brought in Members of Parliament, Hon. K. T. Hammond and Hon. Bryan Acheampong. If you are a Member of Parliament and at the same time a minister, none of them who are Members of Parliament and Ministers or Deputy Ministers, are taking salaries other than what they take from parliament.”
He also opined that the governing New Patriotic Party is doing everything possible to revert the economy to stability, citing the reduction of salaries for MMDCEs and re-alignment of some ministries as clear case scenarios, emphasizing that the opposition MPs call and claims for downsizing are ungrounded and an avenue to score political points.
He, however, questioned the integrity of some Members of Parliament who took photos of a voting exercise supposed to be a secret ballot and described them as disingenuous.
Meanwhile, the Director of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) International Relations Directorate, Alex Segbefia, also a panelist on the programme thinks otherwise.
To him, the NDC MPs attempting to reject President Akufo-Addo’s ministerial appointees help to strengthen and build a country that is ready to advance its democracy.
Background
Contrary to party directives, some NDC MPs voted to approve all six ministerial nominees of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The position was to compel the governing New Patriotic Party to significantly reduce the size of his government in the wake of the economic crisis.
However, after a secret vote, all the nominees were approved despite the absence of three MPs from the majority side in Parliament.
The outcome of Friday’s vote indicates several members of the Minority voted for the approval of the ministerial nominees.
