It’s difficult to understand how Minority failed to drop even one of the new ministerial appointees – Prof. Gyampo

Prof. Ransford Gyampo

Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Ransford Gyampo has reacted to the approval of all the six new ministers appointees nominated by the President of the Republic, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

In a post on his Facebook page, he said it is very difficult to understand how after making a lot of noise, the Minority in Parliament failed to drop even of the new appointees.

“The call on the government to downsize, is shared by the OWNERS of the country including CSOs, political parties and identifiable groups. It resonates with the ordinary Ghanaian, development partners and the diplomatic community. It is therefore very difficult to understand how the minority group of the minority side acted in direct contrast with the mood and sensibilities of the people at this time.

“They couldn’t even drop one of the nominees,” Prof. Ransford Gyampo bemoaned.

According to the Political Science lecturer, there is everything wrong when a side is lobbied or influenced to abandon a just course that sits with the mood of the nation.

In his post, Prof. Ransford Gyampo made the argument that if indeed the NDC is truly serious about its future electoral fortunes, then they must do something about the lack of togetherness among the Minority MPs.

He added that while the Majority in Parliament is also a disappointment, those who never benefitted from ministerial appointments and are still crying for reshuffling and downsizing behind the scenes, are the worst offenders.

Read the full statement by Prof. Ransford Gyampo below:

1. The call on the government to downsize, is shared by the OWNERS of the country including CSOs, political parties and identifiable groups. It resonates with the ordinary Ghanaian, development partners and the diplomatic community. It is therefore very difficult to understand how the minority group of the minority side acted in direct contrast with the mood and sensibilities of the people at this time.

2. They couldn’t even drop one of the nominees? Who do they seek to fool at all times by their attitude of whipping up public hope in what they want to do and yet not doing so when they get the opportunity to act? Are they aware of the implications of their conduct on their own electoral fortunes or they are that ignorant?

3. What did they seek to achieve? Was it a plan to hurt their own support base and foot soldiers who worked for them to be in parliament? Did they decide to deal with their own party that gave them the platform to be in parliament and its leaders because of the reshuffle in the minority leadership? Was it a deliberate attempt to snub the entire nation complaining about the size of government? Were they surreptitiously in support of the size of the government and publicly in opposition to it? Were they looking for money because times are hard and they needed extra resources to help finance their primaries? Did they seek to undermine their party’s electoral fortunes and desire to win the next election?

4. There is nothing wrong with both the majority and minority sides reaching across the divide to lobby, influence and cajole for cross party support, when the cause is just and public mood is in support of it. That’s why we hailed the minority side for the first time, when they were able to get some members of the majority side to get them to elect a Speaker of Parliament who was not from the side of the majority or party that was elected in 2020.

5. But there is everything wrong when a side is lobbied or influenced to abandon a just cause that sits with the mood of the nation. If the NDC is truly serious about its future electoral fortunes, then they must do something about this, else some of their members of parliament are themselves feeding into the cliche that, the alternative isn’t also serious.

6. To those minority side of the minority group and whoever their leader is, please take note that it would actually be politically smart for you to cut out bitterness and offer genuine support for the current minority leadership to succeed. For, you will need the support of the current minority leadership for your bigger and brighter political future. Think about this!

7. The majority side is also a disappointment. Those who never benefitted from ministerial appointments and are still crying for reshuffle and downsizing behind the scenes, are the worst offenders. Only recently, the whole majority side claimed ownership of the decision to call for the kick out of the Finance Minister. But clearly, the President decided to rubbish their call, and one was expecting that they would vote in a certain way to at least send a certain message to the President. But to the extent that those who led this positive defiance now no longer want to even be associated with it, I call all of them cowards, and bluntly describe them as not worth their salt, in our quest to promote the role of parliament as countervailing authority to the powers of the executive.

8. Thankfully, my brief interaction with some ordinary people across the political divide from last night to this afternoon, gives some hope that, some Ghanaians are watching keenly what is going on. May these keen watchers teach these MPs who may soon parade themselves as parliamentary hopefuls some good lessons. Tomorrow, let only those who will identify with the mood of the nation and their constituents be elected.

Yaw Gyampo
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