The Strategic Thinkers Network - AFRICA (STRANEK-AFRICA) has urged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Caucus in Parliament to either change its leadership or amend its way of addressing issues in the Chamber.
In a press statement signed by the Executive Director, Nii Tettey Tetteh, and Deputy Director of Research, Eyram Norglo, STRANEK-AFRICA opines that the majority caucus does not have the necessary skills needed to build a consensus and to tackle fundamental issues in the legislature and so government must consider the leadership of the caucus.
The leader of the NPP caucus, the think tank said, has exhibited ineptness in terms of leadership during the election of the 8th Parliament's speaker and that contributed to defeat of the former Speaker, Mike Ocquaye in the election.
The strategic thinkers noted that when Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin was elected by the house to take over from the former Speaker, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu publicly declared that Bagbin was elected through a consensus reached by both caucuses.
STRANEK-AFRICA has cited the rejection of the 2022 budget statement as one of the numerous developments that suggested that the leadership of the majority caucus has failed to show good leadership and therefore must be changed.
According to the group, the leadership of the caucus has failed to engage the leadership of the minority caucus in a broader consultation before presenting the budget statement to Parliament even though the majority leadership knew that both caucuses had 137 members each plus the independent MP who was on the NPP's side.
One instance in which the leadership of the majority caucus again failed to show good leadership according to STRANEK-AFRICA, is during the voting for the rejection of the budget by the minority.
According to the think that, even though the NPP caucus is made up of 137 members plus the independent candidate, the leadership of the majority could not bring the members together to vote for the approval of the budget but rather decided to deliberately stage a walkout which led to the rejection of the budget by the minority in the absence of the majority.
The think tank believes that the allegations made by the Majority Leader that the Speaker, Bagbin, demanded an amount of 1.72 billion cedis to be allocated to the Parliamentary Service is an attempt by the leadership of the majority caucus to conceal its incompetence in addressing issues in the house.
The think tank also believes that considering the fact that the current Parliament is a hung one, the allegations made by the Majority Leader will rather worsen the issues at hand.
The group entreats the Akufo-Addo-led government to consider changing the leadership of the majority caucus or urge it to adopt a different style in addressing the issues at hand.
Below is the full statement.
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