Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga

The Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga, has urged the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to nominate a female running mate to demonstrate its commitment to gender empowerment.

Ayariga, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, noted that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) had already set the pace by appointing Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as its running mate, who subsequently became Ghana’s first female Vice President—a historic feat in the country’s political history.

“We, the NDC, can only go forward…” he said to cheers on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, in response to comments by the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, who claimed that President Mahama was not committed to gender equity.

Ayariga dismissed the Minority Leader’s allegations that few women were appointed to ministerial positions under the Mahama-led administration.

He called on the NPP to allow female candidates to go unopposed in constituencies considered “safe seats” in its strongholds, particularly in the Ashanti Region, while the NDC could do the same in the Volta Region.

According to him, such a move would ensure a sufficient number of women in Parliament, from whom the President could appoint ministers at any given time.

“Now, the Minority Leader has suddenly become a gender champion, when, as a Majority Leader in government, he could not protect the seats of his female MPs in the last elections and lost most of them… dzi wo fie asem, to wit, ‘focus on your internal issues,’” Ayariga added, drawing laughter and cheers from both sides of the aisle.

Earlier, the Minority Leader, Afenyo-Markin, had stated that President Mahama had failed to fulfill his election promise to appoint 30 percent of his Cabinet from among women.

“We have women MPs on the majority side of the House who have the requisite credentials to be ministers, but they have been relegated to the background,” Afenyo-Markin claimed.

The MP for Effutu also alleged that only 28 women had been appointed by the President as mayors and Chief Executives of the metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies.