Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, has warned that members of the Majority Caucus who had rebelled against the Finance Minister may face dire consequences should the vote of censure fail.
According to him, in the event the vote of censure fails, the 80 Majority Caucus members would be at the mercy of their party officials and this will not bode well for them.
He, however, stated that should the vote of censure succeed the 80 members particularly the leaders and outspoken members within that group would be considered forces to be reckoned with within the party and that would protect them from any reproach from their party leadership.
The Asawase MP was speaking in reference to the seeming U-turn members of the group of 80 are taking on their stance in support of ousting the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
His comments come after the spokesperson for the group, MP for Asante Akyem North, Andy Appiah-Kubi in an interaction with JoyFM stated that while he had indeed supported the resignation of the Finance Minister, he is not convinced the vote of censure is the way to go.
Reacting to the statement, Muntaka Mubarak said the MP like the others who had been outspoken about their conviction might be facing some heat from party officials thus their recent public utterances.
He, however, believes they may still pull through and join the Minority side to oust the Finance Minister.
“As for politicians and our public utterances sometimes I say that’s the hazard of the job. When the heat comes, what people say publicly can sometimes be different from what they’ll do quietly. And remember that he’s also an individual, yes there’s a lot of heat on him, I mean to be a rebel in a caucus I can bet you, it is not a joke.
“I remember as a Majority Whip if you’re a rebel in my caucus you’ll have a lot of heat. Because, I mean, I will do everything to make sure that the heat under your feet will burn you. I mean, you’ve seen how Prince Appiah Ofori when he decided to be a rebel within the Majority caucus, I mean in the early 2000s, you saw the heat. He had to bow out. I want to believe that he bowed out not because he really wanted to but because of the heat… so if you are a rebel within the majority, it is not an easy thing.
“So sometimes you’d want to eat back your own words just to have some breathing space but not because your conviction is changed. So when you get the opportunity for a secret ballot the person will still go ahead with his conviction, but the person publicly will have to take some of the heat off him or herself so that ‘o, we’ve abandoned this path, we’re taking dialogue or we’re doing that’ just to take the heat off because it’s not easy to be a rebel in a party.
“I can assure you that if this thing fails, believe me, all the rebels are not going to find it easy. But if it succeeds then now they become a force to reckon with that everything that’s going to be done they say ‘hey hey becareful of this rebel because they can succeed.’ But if it fails they’ll surely come after them,” he said on JoyNews’ PM Express.
Muntaka Mubarak said now the only insurance the 80 have to protect themselves from any dire consequences within their party is to ensure that the censure succeeds.
He called on them to follow their conviction and vote against the Finance Minister.
“They have to get this to succeed because when it succeeds everyone will now be careful about trying to hurt them. If it fails I can assure they’re not going to find it easy. So my encouragement to them is that please at least your 80, some may chicken out out of fear, but your conviction for which reason you decided to do what you did you have a 136 to give you the minimum threshold to build upon. Come join us,” he said.
