A senior lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo, has refuted claims by the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, that he is a member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the political scientist stated that he owes no allegiance to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the NDC, and therefore the allegations by the legislator are false.

According to Professor Gyampo, he is a neutral political pundit whose opinions on national issues are not influenced by any partisan underpinnings. He therefore called on the Majority Leader to refrain from making such allegations and focus on galvanising support from the Minority Caucus on the E-levy or be replaced.

“I am responding, not because being tagged NDC or NPP is criminal. I am doing so because you peddled a falsehood. Sir, you claimed I haven’t criticized the NDC before. But I want to assume you have either forgotten or you were not in Ghana when the NDC was in power, and cannot also do a simple search of my comments against the Mills/Mahama regime. I therefore forgive you. I asked that you be replaced as Majority Leader, not out of malice but just to help your government maneuver and meander its way in governing even in the wake of the difficulties likely to be imposed by the kind of parliament we currently have.

“Sir, in an attempt to pass the e-levy, you have been unable to mobilize all your 137 plus 1 MPs to give a simple majority support for the proposal. If all 137 plus 1 MPs vote while Speaker Bagbin sits, the e-levy, regardless of the public outcry against it, will pass by a simple majority decision. If you cannot mobilize all your members to support the e-levy, the next strategy will be to court the support of a few members of the NDC, like the NDC successfully did in getting Bagbin elected as Speaker. But this one too, you haven’t been able to do”, Professor Gyampo stated.

Professor Gyampo also added that, “I sincerely believe that the current Parliament has no room for political hawks in its leadership and that, there are some moderate NPP MPs who can lead in Parliament to build bridges and whose utterances won’t be repulsive to genuine efforts at building consensus. That’s why I asked and I am still asking for your reshuffle. If this makes me an NDC man, well, the good people of Ghana are better judges. But respectfully, you cannot continue to lead with the same hawkish tendencies when clearly the current composition of Parliament makes the need to change leadership a categorical imperative. Without changes, government business will suffer and the effect will be more felt by we the ordinary people”.

In a JoyNews’ documentray “Ghana’s Hung Parliament: A Blessing or a Curse Part II“, the Majority Leader chastised Professor Ransford Gyampo for suggesting that the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) should reshuffle its Parliamentary leaders to avert future fisticuffs.

According to him, the outspoken lecturer does not qualify to give the governing party such suggestions since he is a “dyed in the wool” National Democratic Congress (NDC) affiliate.

“Let’s be realistic about this, he is not the person to tell us [NPP/Majority Caucus] the players we should field in our team, he should keep his advice to himself, with respect to him,” he told Kwesi Parker-Wilson.

He continued, “Everybody hears his pronouncements, have you heard Gyampo, ever condemn NDC?”.

But in his reaction to this, Professor Gyampo said, “Sir, please note that the job of a Political Scientist is to scrutinize existing regimes that wield the fiduciary trust of the people with a view to subjecting them to strict proofs and keeping them on their toes. That’s why we offer constructive criticisms against only those in power. These criticisms are without malice and never aimed at making regimes unpopular.

The practice of associating yourself with criticisms of regimes from Political Scientists when you are in opposition, and tagging same people as being in bed with the opposition after you’ve won power, is disingenuous, Sir. Let me end by saying that I am not NDC and I am not NPP too. I enjoy being in the middle and I have good friends like yourself, in both parties. I thank you for your attention and God bless”.