Former Leader of the Majority in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has disclosed that he resigned from his role in Parliament because he didn’t want to be the centre of confusion in the NPP.
He says despite majority of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament pledging their support for him not to resign, he avers he told himself he has had enough and wouldn’t want to be the cause of mayhem in the party.
The decision, which he says was engineered by President Akufo-Addo, was announced to him at a meeting with some NPP MPs and Ministers in the erstwhile administration.
Prior to the President’s arrival to make the announcement, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu says some of the Ministers and MPs present told him they would support him and shouldn’t give in to the demands of the President.
This, he says, was after over 80 out of the then 137 NPP MPs in Parliament had already appended their signature to support him if he refused to resign. He notes the NPP’s constitution gives only the party’s representation in Parliament the power to choose either a Minority or Majority Leader and not the party outside the Legislature.
However, one of the longest serving MPs in Ghana’s Fourth Republic disclosed that he was writing his resignation letter whilst President Akufo-Addo was speaking.
“When the President came he said what he was doing was not his sole decision but something he had planned with the party and if I had matched it with what the MPs were doing, it would have caused a big implosion in the party.
“So on the spur of the moment, I said ‘no, I’ve had enough’. So whilst the President was speaking, I was taking down notes and after that, he asked the General Secretary to come and speak because he took the decision with him. After that he asked if I had something to say and I said I’ve resigned. I said ‘I didn’t want to be the eye of any storm in the party’, I’m quoting myself, so ‘I’m resigning’,” he disclosed.
The former MP for Suame stated that “some of the MPs were so disappointed that I have disappointed them and some who didn’t even attend the meeting said the same thing when they heard it.”
In February 2024, the National Council of the New Patriotic Party changed leadership of the Majority Caucus in Parliament with Alexander Afenyo-Markin, MP for Effutu, taking on the mantle of Majority Leader.
