Outcome of passing all 6 ministerial appointees was not surprising – Prof Agyemang-Duah

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Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah

The John Agyekum Kufour Foundation CEO is not startled by the approval of President Akufo-Addo’s ministerial appointees by NDC MPs after declaring their intention not to approve them.

Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah said he was optimistic that the Akufo-Addo-led government will come out victorious.

“Personally I wasn’t surprised at the outcome because normally in such circumstances, you’re going to find out that the wheeling and dealing on the floor of Parliament on both sides and across, eventually will determine the outcome.

“The outcome doesn’t surprise me. I knew that the government side will win,” he said when speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday.

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Prof Agyeman–Duah partly attributes the NDC’s approval of the appointees to what he describes as excessive power vested in the executive arm of government.

According to him, this makes it easy for government to influence those who may oppose its initiatives.

Following the resignation of some ministers in pursuit of presidential ambitions, the President made new appointments even though there were criticisms of a bloated size of government.

After a prolonged vetting process on Friday, Parliament debated whether or not to give the said appointees the nod after vetting them.

The leadership of the NDC in a statement cautioned its MPs not to approve any of the appointees.

It requested that all who had travelled should make sure they are available for the voting process.

The Minority Caucus indicated a strong opposition to the approach, saying government ought to cut down on expenditures and not exacerbate the current trends of an economic downturn by introducing new Ministers.

However, on March 24, after hours of disagreements and a brief suspension, Parliament finally approved all ministerial nominees.

This does not surprise the co-founder of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).

Prof Agyemang-Duah said the Majority Caucus was aware that should they delay the process, they could convince some of the opposition MPs to join their course.

He told host Samson Lardy Anyenini that it was to be expected that such a situation was going to happen.

“When the Majority side decided to suspend the voting, they knew what was happening, and they knew that if they delayed the process they were going to be able to get some other guys from the other side to join them. This is what you should expect,” he said.

Meanwhile, the public including some experts have expressed disappointment at the NDC MPs for failing to stay through to their course.

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