General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has said his party was not clothed with powers to reject Akufo-Addo’s minister-nominees.

According to him, this meant the NDC MPs cannot be blamed for the controversial approvals that came up.

Johnson Asiedu Nketia's comment were geared towards debunking the perception of some Ghanaians that the Minority Caucus were compromised by the ruling party leading to the approval of some ministers.

“Ghanaians have not given us the power to appoint ministers, they have even not given us sufficient power to fail ministers,” he said Sunday.

Speaking on JoyNews’, The Probe, the NDC firebrand said the accusation would have been legitimate should the NDC hold the majority in the House.

“Then we will say that well if you don’t bring us a person of this calibre, we are voting against the person; we have the power to implement what we want to do.

“But you are accusing us when you denied us the power to nominate, and you say that we should make noise so the noise will satisfy you, is that what you want,” he told Emefa Apawu.

According to him, Ghanaians during the 2020 general election chose the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to indicate that they believe in Akufo-Addo's judgment "and he [Akufo-Addo] has exercise his judgment in retaining the finance minister and you are coming to accuse us [the NDC], you are not accusing the person who did the nomination.”

The General Secretary noted the party would have been in government to possibly nominate the right people if Ghanaians had given them the mandate during the 2020 elections.

“So those who are worried that those people should not be ministers, they should put the blame on the one who did the nomination and not the one who should have expressed a voice; a voice that couldn’t have prevented the people from becoming ministers.”

He further indicated that concerns about the ministers performance should not be targeted at the NDC because it is in opposition, rather Ghanaians should face Akufo-Addo with their plights.

“Speak to the president that the people you have nominated are the wrong people, you don’t turn your guns on us because we are in opposition and knowing very well we don’t have the capacity to fail them.”

Although the approval of the nominees was done by consensus, Mr Asiedu Nketia maintains the NDC could not have changed Akufo-Addo’s decision since his party holds 137 seats against 138, especially when "their president" had nominated the person.

"You think that if Ofori Atta had been rejected, then the next person will be Ato Forson?… Even if Ofori Atta was rejected, the same Nana Akufo-Addo will nominate, and he may nominate a worse person than Ofori Atta, so if you have any blame, put it on the person who made the nomination.

"Judging by the history of the NPP, have you seen them rejecting the president's nominee before," he quizzed.

Mr Asiedu Nketia, therefore, wants Ghanaians to note that “the problem is not from the approval, the problem is with the nomination.”

He, however, indicated that the NDC is not worried in any way by approving the Finance Minister, apprising that, that was a corporation by consensus.

The General Secretary deduced that, the NPP may be the ones troubled, possibly because some of its members in the House may not like Ken Ofori-Atta but "they don’t have the courage to come out and tell the president that we don’t like your cousin to be minister, and they think that we are the vehicles they can use."

He stressed that the nation deprived the NDC the power to appoint ministers, and neither has it given his party the power to "even disqualify them, so If they are not expecting the NPP MPs to join us in failing Ofori-Atta, how are they expecting the NDC by itself with 137 against 138 to disqualify Ofori Atta."