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Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, has hit hard at the leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament for voting for, and thus, helping approve the nominees of President Akufo-Addo who were on the verge of losing their nominations.
According to him, the NDC leadership have taken the support their members gave them for granted.
Speaking on Good Morning Africa on Pan African TV, Pratt Jnr. said: “The leadership of the National Democratic Congress not just in parliament, but all levels, takes their members and their support for granted.”
He said it is clear that some NDC members were very unhappy by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s ministerial nominations yet the NDC MPs “went ahead and put their fingers in the eyes of their supporters and told them to go to hell”.
Kwesi Pratt Jnr. described the NDC MP’s affirmation of Mavis Hawa Koomson, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah and Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto as “an act of betrayal” of their party supporters.
“I have always said that in approving ministers, the most important thing should be the national interest: are the ministers competent enough to handle their portfolios or not, and clearly it is obvious that some of the people who were approved are not competent enough to handle the portfolios that they have been given,” Pratt observed.
“You take the minister who has no idea about the structure of her sector and yet NDC people have made it possible for her to become a minister. This is disgraceful and in fact, they refused to listen to all the warnings which were sounded.”
He recounted a piece of advice he gave the leadership of the party prior to the vetting of the nominees and made it clear that “the party will be in jeopardy” should the NDC MPs on the Appointments Committee joke with the vetting.
“I told them in plain language that it will have repercussions in the 2024 elections. Who is going to risk his life and vote for you when you are going to betray them in this manner?” he asked.
To him, “the NDC had deliberately stabbed itself in the eye” and he does not think the party will recover from the fatal blow it has delivered to itself.
Kwesi Pratt Jnr. could not comprehend why some NDC MPs voted for the nominees that do not deserve the ministries they are going to take charge of.
“Nobody can convince me that NDC MPs did not vote for these nominees […] there were near or almost unanimous disapproval for Madam Hawa Koomson, so how come she gets more votes than Oppong-Nkrumah; how come, how come?” Pratt stressed. “The fact [that] Hawa Koomson gets more votes than Oppong-Nkrumah and Akoto Afriyie [separately] shows that what happened in parliament is unwholesome; clearly unwholesome. I am embarrassed, disgusted by this behaviour.”
The nominees for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah; Fisheries and Aquaculture, Hawa Koomson; Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Akoto Afriyie, sailed through after they were rejected by Parliament’s Appointments Committee.
Per the Standing Orders of Parliament, the plenary, or “Committee of the Whole,” was required to vote on the list.
After the secret voting on Wednesday, the nominees were passed. The president will now swear them into office so that they can officially start work.
Some NDC leaders and supporters have given scathing and robust criticisms about the Minority leadership of Parliament and the Speaker, saying they could have done more to advance the interests of the NDC and the nation.
