Chairman, NDC, details morale behind change in leadership

Chairman of the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has justified the change in its leadership in Parliament.

According to him, the change is part of the reorganization process to help the party capture political power in the upcoming 2024 elections.

“We started the reorganization of our structures to be able to position ourselves to fight the election in 2024,” he said.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with JoyNews’ Blessed Sogah, he said the decision forms part of a nationwide restructuring process the party is undertaking.

"We started more than a year ago, at the branch level. We have since done elections in about 40, 000 branches, and from there we proceeded to the constituency level. We are largely done with all the constituencies; we have done regional elections, and we just completed our national election. The next step is to look at our leadership in Parliament. “That is what we have just done,” he said.

Touching on the timing of the party’s decision and its intended effect, Mr. Nketia stressed that the timing is in line with plans to fully prepare the party for the race ahead. “In terms of timing, it’s in line with the way we are prosecuting the national reorganization. In terms of why?” What it tells you is that the only constant thing is change.

“Since the environment is changing, leadership must change along with the new environment,” he said. Mr. Nketia stated that as the election date approaches, the debates on the floor of Parliament will shift to issues concerning the economy, infrastructure, and energy; thus, it is critical that they [the NDC] put the best in those fields to properly argue their stance.

“We know, for instance, that going into the election of 2024, the economy is going to be the major battleground, and so many of the debates will focus on the economy. So you had better put your best man forward in the economy, which is exactly what we did. “We also looked at energy.” You know the petroleum and electricity challenges, so we needed to settle on Kofi Armah Buah, our former minister to be the Deputy Minority Leader.The other area is infrastructure, Kwame Agbodza being our man in infrastructure should play a key role that generally is what informed the changes” he added.

The National Chairman of the NDC said although the party tried to have equal representation of all 16 regions, that is impossible given that there are only five positions to be filled.

He stressed that “the change has nothing to do with the performance of the leaders at all.”

“What it has a lot to do with is that the environment is changing, so if you are a football coach and the team you are facing and the game style they are adopting is not in keeping with the players you have put out there, you will do yourself a lot of good.” Some NDC legislators have described the new development as a “coup d’etat.”

However, Mr. Nketia said the outgoing leadership of the party was duly informed of the new decision.

“We sent a senior person to the party to engage them and let them know that this is the way we are going to handle it.”

“Naturally, it will not be pleasant news, but at least you need to give them respect, so we communicated with them before writing the letters to them.”

“Apart from the letter we have written to Mr. Speaker each of them was written a special letter acknowledging their contributions whilst they were in the leadership,” he added.

Mr. Nketia added that all other legislators will be informed once Parliament resumes from recess.

Earlier on Tuesday, the current leadership of the NDC was changed on all fronts