Member of Parliament for Effiduase Asokore, Dr Nana Ayew Afriye, has shed light on the motivations behind the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs’ #KenMustGo campaign, which called for the dismissal of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
Speaking on the issue in an interview on Oyerepa TV, monitored by Mynewsgh.com, Dr Afriye explained that the campaign was born out of frustration over President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s failure to respond to growing public and party concerns.
“We staged Ken Must Go because the president was not listening and the executives were not listening. If the president was listening, and you know the moods of Ghanaians, and even your own core party people were telling you, you guys are not listening. They said Kan Dapaah was not sacked when his scandal came. Now they are saying, sack Ken, just do that so everyone will be okay,” Dr Afriye stated.
According to him, the campaign symbolised the tension and dissatisfaction within the party.
He described it as an unprecedented action in the Fourth Republic, highlighting the intensity of the situation at the time.
“People saw this as an indicator of make or break within the party. We did that thing at a point when the tension was so high. When have you seen under the Fourth Republican Parliament where MPs will do what they did? It’s not good for any MP to do that. It is more like you are sabotaging the government,” he remarked.
The #KenMustGo campaign was launched by a group of NPP lawmakers in October 2022, led by their spokesperson, Andy Kwame Appiah-Kubi, MP for Asante-Akim North.
The MPs demanded the dismissal of Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister, to restore public confidence in the economy.
The lawmakers threatened to withdraw support for the government and boycott the 2023 Budget if their demands were not met.
The petition, reportedly signed by about 80 NPP MPs, was a response to earlier concerns raised with the government, which had gone unaddressed.
The MPs believed that the removal of the Finance Minister and his deputy would signal a change in the government’s approach to addressing the country’s economic challenges.
