BREAKING: NDC Split Over 2023 Haruna Iddrisu Leadership Reshuffle

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A public war of words has broken out within Ghana’s ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) over the contested legacy of its 2023 parliamentary leadership reshuffle, with the Interior Minister’s camp accusing National Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah of attempting to rewrite history and inflaming divisions within the party’s northern Muslim bloc.

The dispute was triggered by remarks Asiedu Nketiah made during his ongoing nationwide “Thank You Tour” in the Tamale South constituency, where he defended the January 2023 decision to remove Haruna Iddrisu as Minority Leader. The NDC chairman argued that changing the party’s “forward line” in Parliament was necessary for electoral repositioning, claiming the reshuffle played a crucial role in the NDC’s 2024 general election victory.

Asiedu Nketiah also revealed that President John Dramani Mahama, then the party’s presidential candidate, had not initially agreed with the decision, but that party leadership proceeded because it believed the changes were necessary.

The response from the Muntaka camp was swift and pointed. In a strongly worded statement signed by Nasir Gardenboi, spokesperson to Interior Minister Muntaka Mubarak, the camp accused Asiedu Nketiah of attempting to rewrite history and unfairly diminish the contributions of key party figures for political convenience, describing the chairman’s remarks as “unfortunate, unnecessary, and divisive.”

Gardenboi said the NDC’s 2024 election win belonged to the full party, not to any single structural decision. “The victory was the product of collective sacrifice, strategic planning, and the tireless efforts of party faithful across the country,” the statement said, adding that public comments by senior officials should “unite rather than divide.”

The statement also defended the record of Haruna Iddrisu, Muntaka and Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson, pointing specifically to their conduct during the dramatic January 2021 election of the Speaker of Ghana’s 8th Parliament as evidence of the leadership they brought to the NDC’s parliamentary struggles.

The sharpest dimension of the rebuke was its warning on northern Muslim representation, with the statement suggesting that many Northerners and Muslims within the NDC are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with what they perceive as a pattern of unfair treatment and public attacks against respected leaders from their bloc, cautioning that such perceptions could deepen cracks within the party if not addressed.

Asiedu Nketiah has since sought to defuse the tension on one front. He disclosed that he personally advised President Mahama to appoint both Haruna Iddrisu and Muntaka Mubarak to senior ministerial positions after the election, saying he told the President that the two figures could not be ignored in forming the government.

The January 2023 reshuffle had replaced Haruna Iddrisu with Cassiel Ato Forson as Minority Leader, with Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah becoming Deputy Minority Leader and Governs Kwame Agbodza taking over as Minority Whip, a set of changes that at the time sparked confusion and anger within sections of the NDC.

That the dispute has resurfaced publicly, with a sitting minister’s spokesperson openly rebuking the party chairman, signals that the fracture lines from 2023 have not fully healed, even as the NDC governs from the majority.