Haruna Iddrisu Recounts How NDC Deliberately Punished Akufo-Addo With MMDCE Election Agenda

• Former Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu disclosed how the NDC minority used strategic silence to derail Akufo-Addo's bid to make MMDCEs elective
• Iddrisu revealed the tactic at the Second National Dialogue on Decentralisation held in Accra
• The NDC spotted critical constitutional omissions in the government's proposed amendments but waited for a key deadline to pass before acting

Former Minority Leader and Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has publicly disclosed how the National Democratic Congress minority in parliament deliberately sabotaged former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's effort to make Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives elective.

Iddrisu made the disclosure at the Second National Dialogue on Decentralisation held in Accra, offering a candid account of how opposition lawmakers outmanoeuvred the government on a flagship constitutional reform proposal.

NDC's calculated silence on constitutional flaws

According to Haruna Iddrisu, in a publication sighted on GhanaWeb, the minority identified significant gaps in the government's proposed amendments to Article 243(1) of the 1992 Constitution early in the process.

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Two provisions were left unaddressed: Article 243(3), which preserves the President's authority to dismiss chief executives, and Article 248, which requires local elections to be conducted on a non-partisan basis.

Rather than alert the government to these omissions, the minority chose to say nothing and waited for the mandatory 90-day window for Council of State consultations to expire, effectively killing the reform effort.

"When President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo sought to amend the constitution to make DCEs elective, I was a minority leader... So we chose to punish Nana Addo Dankwa on matters of principle of constitutional law and law," Iddrisu said.

Advisors "went to sleep," Iddrisu says

The former minister placed significant blame on the Akufo-Addo administration's advisors, saying their failure to review the full constitutional framework created the opening the NDC exploited.

"So we then reminded him that you cannot elect a DCE and then leave the power of the president to fire the same DCE," Iddrisu added, using the revelation to press the case for more comprehensive local government reform going forward.

His remarks underscore the internal contradictions that plagued the MMDCE election agenda, which was a long-standing promise of the Akufo-Addo government but never advanced to a referendum.

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Critics had long argued that making chief executives elective while leaving presidential removal powers intact would create a structurally incoherent system of local governance.

Cabinet approves bill to elect MMDCEs

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh reported that Cabinet had approved major reforms to Ghana’s decentralisation system, including plans to end the presidential appointment of MMDCEs.

A new Local Governance Bill was expected to be laid before Parliament by the end of 2026, alongside other proposed changes.

The reforms also proposed increasing the District Assemblies Common Fund allocation from 5% to 7.5%.

Source: YEN.com.gh