Former Majority Leader, Cletus Avoka, says the justification offered by the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, concerning the reshuffle of the party’s parliamentary leadership does not hold water.

According to him, the argument for the reshuffle is unfortunate, and the reshuffle itself would merely serve a diversion from the real topics i.e. the misdeeds of the NPP-led government.

“Now that this has come it is going to bring about low morale in Parliament, it’s going to bring about some sort of disaffection and in any case, it’s diversionary.

“In the sense that instead of focusing on the misdeeds of the NPP so that we can rally the people behind us, they’re going to divert attention, social media, the media will divert attention and for the next one week or two weeks, they’ll be talking about crisis or conflict in the NDC rather than the misdeeds of the NPP. That is why I say that it is unfortunate,” he said on JoyNews’ PM Express.

Johnson Asiedu Nketia had among other things stated that one of the major reasons for the reshuffle was to capitalize on the skills set of the new leaders ahead of the 2024 general elections.

According to him, the 2024 general elections would largely be based on the economy, energy and infrastructure hence the reason for selecting economic expert, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson; energy expert, Kofi Armah Baah and infrastructure expert, Kwame Agbodza.

However, Cletus Avoka says simply basing the reshuffle on their skills set at this most crucial time does not bode well for the party.

He argues, the three were already contributing immensely to the party by serving on parliamentary committees, so there was no need to foist party leadership on them.

“If we say that because Ato Forson has economic background and therefore the 2024 elections will be fought on an economic basis, admitted, that is so. But he doesn’t need to be a leader. He’s a ranking member of the Finance Committee, and he has been doing that work creditably in support of other members of parliament. And he has been doing this for the past six years not just today.

“So I don’t think that it’s the last two years that will let our leader in parliament be somebody with an economic background and therefore that will give us a sway. No. Then if that is the argument, then the presidential candidate should also be an economist. If that is the argument and you’re going to present a flagbearer, then he must be an economist. And he mustn’t need to be.

“He will need to have an economist as a minister of finance who can advise him and then have an economic management team. So I don’t think that the fact that Ato Forson has an economic background and Haruna Iddrisu may not have it that is the reason to change him. That is not a good reason,” he said.