Majority Leader's resignation means all is not well with NPP - Political Scientist
A Senior Political Science Lecturer at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Dr. Gbensuglo Alidu Bukari, believes that the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, was forced to resign his post.
There are some media reports that suggest that Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Suame Constituency in the Ashanti Region, resigned his position as the leader of the Majority caucus on Wednesday, February 21, 2024.
Neither has the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) nor Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu communicated his resignation publicly.
However, on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, the Majority caucus in Parliament held a press conference and said the caucus had no plans to change their leadership, and that any claim that the Majority Caucus was going to change their leadership should be disregarded.
The said press conference was addressed by the MP for Bekwai constituency, Joe Osei Owusu, who also doubles as the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
Prior to the Majority Caucus' press conference, there were some reports that the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was going to be replaced with his Deputy, Alexander Afenyo-Markin.
“The publications that are going around are false, the majority caucus has not made any changes to its leadership, and the majority caucus has not contemplated making any changes to its leadership and we want to tell you to ignore any such publication,” Mr Osei Owusu said.
For him, the majority caucus was confident in their leadership and that the "the status quo shall remain."
But Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu is said to have willingly offered to step down in order to calm down the tension that was brewing within the Majority Caucus.
The development follows brief tensions between the caucus and the executive after it emerged that there were moves to reshuffle the leadership of the majority caucus.
Speaking on Accra-based 3FM on Thursday afternoon, February 22, 2024, Dr Alidu Bukari expressed the view that the governing party needed to take immediate steps to ensure that the issue does not affect the party's fortunes, particularly in the Ashanti Region where the Majority Leader comes from.
For him, for the Majority Leader to resign from his position at this time "means all is not well with the party."