Ade Coker Leads Rebellion Against Mahama

It is often said that the breeze that disgraces the chicken always comes from the back. In other words, the one who points a knife at you can stab you.

The morals in these adages have come to pass with an outrageous warning from the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress, Mr. Ade Coker to President John Mahama to reconsider his decision on the recent axing of some MMDCEs from the region or risk paying a price for it.

Mr. Ade Coker, who was reacting to the recent dismissal of 33 MMDCEs by the president through the Local Government Ministry of which the Greater Accra region suffered four casualties, on an Accra-based radio station-Joy FM, said the party petitioned the president expressing their misgivings about the manner in which the issue was handled.

According to Mr. Ade Coker, the president took a unilateral decision in dismissing the four MMDCEs from the region without consulting the Greater Accra Regional Executives, a decision he said, the president must do the honorable thing by rescinding or be prepared to face the consequences out of the apathy it would generate among NDC members in the region.

The Greater Accra NDC chairman who was responding to reported acts of rebellion by a section of Tema Assembly members with sympathies to the ruling NDC, virtually endorsed the members’ decision to lead an inexorable crusade to reject President John Mahama’s nominee for the municipality over the sacking of the previous MCE, Kempes Ofosuware.

According to him, the leadership of the party in the region has worked closely with the various MMDCEs; therefore, they know the hard working once that must be retained, adding that the President should have consulted them before taking such a decision.

“We believe that as a regional party, we have to make some inputs regarding the nomination or re-nomination of MCEs and DCEs in the region”, said Mr. Ade Coker.

He said, they are patiently waiting for an official response from the President regarding a petition they had written to him.

In the petition, the Greater Accra regional executive of the NDC stated that the four dismissed MMDCEs in the region were among others they recommended to the President for retention because of their hard work which made the party to win more votes in the region during the just ended elections.

‘We have for the past four years worked with the MMDCEs in the region and have the firm believes that but for their work the region will not have recorded one of the highest votes for the party during the elections, and especially your victory.’

Meanwhile, intelligence picked up by The Al-Hajj indicates that executives of the ruling party in other regions are also planning to tow the same line as the Greater Accra Region to have some of their ‘darling’ MMDCEs reinstated.

Thirty-three MMDCEs across the country were axed from their positions by the president; the dismissal was contained in a statement that was signed by the Local Government Minister, Mr. Akwasi Oppong-Fosu.

The statement, which explained that the affected MMDCEs were those who had not been re-nominated, was greeted with protest, particularly from supporters of the NDC in the Tema Metropolis, who were livid over the president’s dismissal of the Tema Metopolitan Chief Executive, Kempes Papa Nii Ofosuware.

Many believed that, Mr. Ade Coker’s action which seeks to stampede President Mahama in re-engaging the sacked MMDCEs was highly informed by the protest by his party folks, and as such, he sees it as a window of opportunity to use it in an undefined attempt to win back the hearts of the majority of party supporters in the region who have lost faith in his administration ahead of the NDC’s regional delegates’ congress.

This puny and egoistic strategy many party insiders said would be latched on by party executives in other regions in the coming days to demonstrate how they have the concerns of their party members at heart.

The threat to have new nominees by the president rejected by their respective Assemblies is intended to cow President Mahama, since many of his nominees across the country have so far suffered similar humiliating and frustrating fate.