Kamal-Deen Abdulai
Following the supposed rejection of nominations of some ministers-designate by the NDC side on Parliament’s Appointment Committee, a deputy National Communications Director of the NPP, Kamal-Deen Abdulai, has asked members of the party to learn from what is happening in Parliament and show love to the party ahead of the 2024 general elections.
“Need we blame the NDC and their representatives on the Appointments Committee for their position on some of the vetted appointees of His Excellency the President so far? I think they are emboldened by the neck-to-neck numbers in the House after the December 7, 2020 parliamentary elections and other factors,” he said.
In a Facebook post, Kamal-Deen noted that “this should be a wake-up call to all NPP executives and members across board that 2024 is not going to be business as usual.”
“Unfettered love for party is demanded, fairness in internal processes must be key and vehement efforts must be made to instil discipline in the party as well as try to put stringent measures in place to fight this cancer called monetisation of internal elections,” he said.
Rejection and suspension
The NDC side of Parliament’s Appointment Committee has rejected some of President Akufo-Addo’s ministers-designate after their vetting. They include the Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister-designate, Mavis Hawa Koomson; the Minister of Information-designate, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah; and the Minister of Food and Agriculture-designate, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto.
The group has also suspended its approval of the Minister of Health-designate, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu; the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation-designate, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful; the Minister-designate for Roads and Highways, Kwesi Amoako Attah; and the Attorney-General and Minister-designate for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame.
The NDC side cited issues such as “arrogant”, “alarmingly abysmal lack of knowledge”, “discourteous”, among others, for the rejection.
Causes
According to Kamal-Deen, ‘mafia’ at primaries, monetisation of intra party elections, ‘skirt and blouse’ canvassing and voting by so-called true blue party people before and during the general elections, among others, are some of the reasons why the party should blame itself for some of the needless woes the party is facing now in government.
“For instance, the reason adduced by them, on why the Information Minister-designate, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, shouldn’t be given the nod by the house is that he caused Hon. Dominic Ayine to be cited for contempt by the apex court of the land. Like seriously?” Kamal-Deen wondered.
According to the former NPP National Nasara Coordinator, “the dexterity with which the Information Minister-designate went through his vetting was seen by all, even to the admiration of the Minority Leader, Hon. Haruna Iddrissu (lawyer Aduna), who retorted at the tail end of the event that the young man was a fantastic communicator, except to add that he had a difficult job at hand and wished him well. Need I state at this juncture, that, the competence of the nominee is not in question by the august committee? So, why these needless red herrings just to frustrate the process?” he asked.
