The Director of the Democracy Project at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Dr John Osae-Kwapong, has cautioned that the growing public tension within the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) could become a major distraction to the government if it is not properly managed.

Commenting on the recent war of words and perceived friction involving Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu and National Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah on Joy FM’s Top Story programme on Monday, May 25, Dr Osae-Kwapong warned that internal succession battles and political rivalries risk overshadowing governance priorities.

According to him, while the tensions may not necessarily destabilise the administration of President John Dramani Mahama, they could divert attention away from critical national issues and slow down the implementation of key government policies.

“If it continues down this path, if the tensions continue to rise, if there is an internal battle that is going to spill over and start playing out publicly where different personalities would have to take sides, then yes, it is a worrying development, especially when you are also the incumbent party that is governing,” he stated. “And I say that because if you are not careful, it can become a distraction from the everyday things that you're trying to do to govern."

Dr Osae-Kwapong cited the government’s proposed decentralisation policy as an example of an important national initiative that had struggled to gain sufficient public attention because political discussions had become dominated by the internal wrangling within the governing party.

“There’s a new decentralisation policy that I believe can strengthen our local government structures and move the efforts that we are making in the area of local government forward a lot more. But over the last 48 hours, how much of that has gained any traction in public conversations?” he queried.

He explained that when internal political disputes dominate the public discourse, efforts aimed at addressing governance challenges and advancing national development often become overshadowed.

“When these internal battles take centre stage and spill over publicly, then the real issues of governance and efforts being made to address all of our different governance challenges and move the country’s development needle forward get lost,” he stressed.

The political analyst further argued that the electorate would ultimately judge the government based on its performance and not on how party members fought over political succession.

“At the end of the day, citizens are not going to reward you for how well you fought for your own political ambitions. It is the governance outcomes that are going to determine whether the Ghanaian voter decides to retain your party in power or not,” he said.

Dr Osae-Kwapong maintained that ministers and government appointees should remain focused on delivering the administration’s agenda rather than becoming consumed by internal political contests ahead of the 2028 general election.

“You would want the Honourable Haruna to focus on delivering the president’s agenda in the education sector. You don’t want some of these internal contests over who is next in line to distract him from being able to pursue the president’s agenda in education,” he noted.

He warned that although such tensions may not collapse the government, they could slow down policy implementation across key sectors if allowed to intensify.

“It may not destabilise the government, but if it intensifies, it can be distracting enough that it can slow down whatever agenda the president is trying to pursue in all of the key sectors,” he said.

The comments come amid increasing speculation within political circles over possible succession dynamics in the NDC ahead of the 2028 elections, with some observers pointing to emerging factional alignments within the party.