Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has encouraged the former Minority Leaders of the House, led by Haruna Iddrisu, to look forward to opportunities ahead after being removed from their positions.

According to him, when one door closes, it makes way for others to open.

Thus, “what I can say to the former leadership is, the Lord is your shepherd, you shall not want and when one door closes, another one opens and I tell you for sure that the opened doors are better and higher than the closed doors. Look at the open doors and not the closed doors…”

Welcoming MPs to Parliament on Tuesday the Speaker said the outgone leaders of the Minority worked for all to see and thus deserve to be applauded.

 “The former members of the [Minority] leadership led by Haruna Iddrisu must be applauded because their record of performance is visible for all to see, and I hope the new leadership will learn from their fountain of wisdom, a trove of wealth and experience,” he said.

It would be recalled that on January 24 the leadership of the National Democratic Congress issued a statement indicating the change in its leadership in Parliament.

This sparked controversies in and out of the party on why the party would change Haruna Iddrisu, James Klutse Avedzi  and Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka.

Some of these reshuffled leaders said they were not informed of the changes and other MPs described it as a coup.

In defense, the Chairman of the party , Johnson Asiedu Nketia said party elders had informed the outgone leaders of the decision prior to the press release, adding that the change was to help position the party for economic and infrastructure debates ahead of election 2024.

Subsequently, Former President Mahama called the outgone leaders for a meeting which many say helped them accept the change.

Earlier in Parliament on Tuesday the Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu added another twist to the story by rejecting allegations that Haruna Iddrisu, “sold out” his caucus when he was the Minority Leader. 

He said such claims are untrue and should be disregarded completely. 

The Suame MP said it’s unfortunate for someone who has served his party and the country so well to be described as such. 

“Let me state emphatically and unambiguously that no such thing happened. I had developed a very harmonious working relationship with them [old Minority leaders] but people then read meanings into it.

“The business of the Minority Leader is to assist the Majority Leader in facilitating the business of the government and if someone does that, it shouldn’t be perceived as selling out to the Majority.”