Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu says Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin is doing his best in Parliament but faces limited influence because of the numerical strength of his caucus.
The former Minority Leader reflected on the challenges of leading an opposition caucus against a substantially larger majority.
“For instance, the current minority leader, Afeyo Makin, is doing his utmost best, but he’s simply overwhelmed with the numbers,” he said while discussing on JoyFM’s SMS on Tuesday.
“Very little to do, very little influence with those numbers,” he added.
Mr Iddrisu compared the situation with his own experience in a Parliament where the distribution of seats significantly limited the opposition’s ability to influence proceedings.
“So it reminded me of my days when we had 169, 106 kind of Parliament, where you can be told that even if you walk out, it made no meaning and made no consequence,” he said.
Despite those numerical differences, the Tamale South MP stressed that democracy required space for dissent and constructive criticism.
“But I think that for the good of our democracy, it’s good to tolerate dissent, and it’s good to tolerate constructive criticisms,” he said.
He explained that such criticism should help improve governance and the quality of life of Ghanaians, adding that making life easier for citizens should be the primary objective of public office holders.
Mr Iddrisu also underscored the importance of consensus in parliamentary leadership, noting that leaders sometimes needed to allow backbenchers to take the initiative before intervening to manage disagreements.
“Consensus is the beauty of any democracy,” he said.
His remarks came in response to questions about whether he missed parliamentary leadership and how he viewed the conduct of parliamentary business.