The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says it deliberately agreed to have its Members of Parliament approve Ken Ofori-Atta as Finance Minister despite what they say is his abysmal handling of the Ghanaian economy.

General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah believes the decision was because Mr. Ofori-Atta is a “lame-duck” whose second term in office could be capitalized on for electoral fortunes in 2024.

Speaking to Umaru Sanda Amadu on the Face to Face program on Citi TV, the NDC’s chief scribe revealed that the party’s rank and file reached the consensus as part of plans to strategically return to power in 2024.

He pointed out that the approval of Mr. Ofori-Atta as substantive Minister of Finance should therefore not be surprising because it is simply in order.

“The party even held several meetings and concluded that we shouldn’t split hairs about Ofori-Atta’s approval. We believe that he is a lame-duck Minister at this stage. So if the government wants a lame-duck Minister, they should have him. His work will make it easier for us to win the election, so we should let him go. That was the party’s position that was communicated.”

“In this particular case even after the decision had been taken, I could see that a lot of our MPs found it very difficult to contribute. They didn’t want to be associated with any process to approve Ofori-Atta”, he added.
Ken Ofori-Atta’s approval as Minister for Finance has seen some members of the NDC chastising their representatives on the Appointments’ Committee for not being thorough and critical of the nominee.

For instance, Deputy Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Isaac Adongo broke ranks with the Minority Caucus in the House over the approval of Ofori-Atta as Finance Minister.

He said he has so many doubts about Mr. Ofori-Atta, insisting that his side should have rejected his nomination.

“I have stayed out of the media because of the question of why we approved Ken Ofori-Atta. I don’t want my name to be dragged in the mud when I do not have control over the processes leading to the approval of one of my fiercest critic,” he said.

Mr. Ofori-Atta after his two-day vetting was approved by consensus following recommendations by the Appointments Committee.