Fireworks in Parliament as majority and minority leaders spar over absent Ken Ofori-Atta’s US residency
Parliament became a battleground on Wednesday as the Majority and Minority leadership traded barbs over the fate of former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, whose lawyers announced that an American court had approved his application for permanent residency in the United States.
The announcement triggered an immediate political response from Mahama Ayariga, who used the floor to hold the opposition accountable for what he characterised as a broken campaign pledge.
The Minority had vowed, he recalled, to drag the former minister back across Ghana’s borders to answer for his stewardship of the nation’s coffers.
“You even promised to bring Ken Ofori-Atta to this country. You promised us in this chamber that you would bring Ken Ofori-Atta to Ghana. We didn’t ask you, but you promised us,” Ayariga reminded the benches across from him.
Rather than sitting in Parliament working toward that goal, Ayariga suggested, the opposition now found itself helpless as Ofori-Atta cemented his status abroad — a circumstance he framed as a damning indictment of both the former minister and those who had championed him.
“A former finance minister running away from his country. And you sit there, and you want to complain about a government that is just one and a half years in office, fixing the mess of people like that,” he said.
Ayariga’s argument rested on a simple assertion: if Ofori-Atta believed himself innocent of wrongdoing, the prudent course would be to return voluntarily and mount a defence. The fact that he had instead opted for permanent residence abroad, in Ayariga’s view, spoke volumes.
“If he has nothing to fear, he should man up and come back to this country and come and defend himself.”
Alexander Afenyo-Markin rose to push back, protesting what he saw as an unfair ambush of a man unable to respond. The Minority Leader invoked a principle of basic fairness — that accusations levelled in Parliament against an absent party amounted to an assault without opportunity for rebuttal.
“We cannot bring Ken Ofori-Atta’s name here when the man is not here to defend himself and make serious allegations against him,” he said, calling for civility and restraint.
Afenyo-Markin also lamented what he characterised as a pattern of personal attacks on the former minister, referencing earlier parliamentary incidents in which placards had been brandished against Ofori-Atta. He appealed for dignity and respect.
“He is a human being like you, a citizen like you. He also has children. He has his family. Be fair.”
Ayariga, however, was unrelenting. He turned the spotlight squarely onto the NPP itself, insisting that Ghanaians should demand the party either produce their former nominee or forfeit any claim to power in future elections.
A government that had entrusted its economy to someone who then fled the country, he argued, had forfeited the moral right to ask voters for another chance.
“Ghanaians should demand of the NPP that if they don’t produce Ken Ofori-Atta in this country, they should never come before them asking for power again,” he declared, his voice rising.
The exchange encapsulated the broader political tension surrounding Ofori-Atta’s economic legacy and the divergent narratives the two sides had constructed around his tenure and disappearance.
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