Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, Kwaku Rickets-Haggan, has said the failure of the Minority to reject the new ministerial appointees in Parliament on Friday was borne out of greed, sabotage and friendship.
The NDC MP says they failed Ghanaians for their inability to hold the government accountable for his newly ministerial appointees after making promises of taking a stance to get the President reduce the size of government prior to the vetting of the nominees.
Mr. Rickets-Haggan says they “disgraced” themselves as a caucus and it was so “shameful” of them that their leadership should be awake should they want to be accepted by Ghanaians as an alternative government.
Explaining his reasons, the lawmaker said on TV3’s the KeyPoints Saturday, March 25, 2023, that the voting pattern stemmed from sabotage of the new executives of the Minority.
“We have a few people or many that if you look at the votes, you know some people were not happy and most of the unhappiness was based on principle. We recently had a change in the Minority leadership and some felt they should have been consulted,” he indicated.
READ ALSO: Approval of ministerial nominees: How Parliament voted
According to him, the sabotage was not carried on the personalities of the individuals fronting the caucus leadership but rather the principle that was breached.
“I’m not suggesting the old leaders played the lead to sabotage but some who supported, some have moved on but I believe there are still people who were not happy with events and felt that they should punish the party. It was a clear undermining of Ato Forson’s leadership to punish the Chair of the party, Hon. Asiedu Nketia,” he explained further.
For his second reason, the Cape Coast South MP said “greediness on the part of some of our MPs. There are some who are more interested in enriching themselves than serving the interest of the caucus.”
READ ALSO: Some NDC MPs break rank to confirm new ministerial nominees despite rejection threats
When asked if he meant some of his colleagues took bribes, he said “absolutely, no doubt” explaining that the Minority leadership had told him some the Majority leadership had confidently told them of some number of votes they were going to get from the NDC MPs prior to the voting.
The MP also indicated the relationship between the appointees and some members of the Minority caucus influenced the voting pattern despite the party’s directive to whip all members along one line.
Parliament with a 136 members apiece for both caucuses voted for the approval of six new ministrial nominees made by President Akufo-Addo recently.
Following threats by the Minority to reject the members prior to the exercise, many felt they would have capitalised on the numbers to get their agenda across but failed to do so.
By Felix Anim-Appau|Onuaonline.com|Ghana
