The Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has stepped down voluntarily from his position in the House.
The move comes after a crunch meeting between the Majority Caucus in Parliament, national leaders of the New Patriotic Party and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
At the meeting, held on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, at Jubilee House, the seat of Ghana’s presidency, the NPP executives proposed changes to the leadership of the majority side in the house.
According to reports, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the seven-term Member of Parliament for Suame in the Ashanti Region, voluntarily decided to step down as the Majority Leader following the suggestion by the party leadership.
Reports say that after Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu announced his decision to step aside, colleague MPs gave him a standing ovation as a sign of honour and respect for his 23 years of dedicated service to the nation and the NPP as a party.
President Akufo-Addo then spoke highly of Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and thanked him for his long years of service in Parliament.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has since been named by the New Patriotic Party’s presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, as the head of his Election 2024 policy and manifesto team.
He has served in the ranks of the NPP parliamentary leadership for 23 years. During this period, he was majority leader for 15 years and two months, deputy leader for four years and chief whip for four years.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu takes up the vital role of leading the NPP to fashion its manifesto around the vision of the party’s presidential candidate, Mahamudu Bawumia.
The role of Majority Leader following the exit of Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu is likely to be filled by Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the current deputy Majority Leader and MP for Effutu in the Central Region.
The choice of Afenyo-Markin as the majority leader is seen as highly strategic due to his demographic and geopolitical advantages, as he is relatively young and hails from the Central Region.