The Education Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, has confessed that, as Minority leader, he led his caucus to frustrate former President Akufo-Addo’s plans to elect Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).
According to Haruna Iddrisu, although the NDC agreed that MMDCEs should be elected, he told the NDC caucus at the time to frustrate Akufo-Addo constitutionally and legally.
Speaking at the Second National Dialogue on Decentralisation in Accra, on Monday, August 10, 2026, Haruna Iddrisu recounted, “When President Nana Addo sought to amend the constitution to make DCEs elective. I was then the minority leader, a very responsible leader. So we chose to punish Nana Addo on matters of principle and constitutional law; your minister is here coincidentally; he was the one I used together with Muntaka. So I don’t want a repeat of this under the NDC government.
Nana Addo wrote to the Speaker of Parliament for amendment of the constitution; having gone through the Council of State, for us to elect MMDCEs in principle we all agree that it should be elective.
Nana Addo, as president, then wrote to the Speaker of Parliament for us to amend Article 2431, which was to remove the appointment of DCEs to make it elective. So I told the minority that let’s frustrate him constitutionally and legally. I told him and his whip that no NDC MP should comment on the constitutional amendment proposed by the government”.
Also, Haruna Iddrisu at the event asserted that Ghana’s decentralisation system must be overhauled.
He insisted that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCs) must be elected if the country is serious about deepening democracy at the local level.
He stated, “The only thing we can do to elevate decentralisation to a higher height is to make elections of the MMDCEs elective and move away from the appointed principle into a competitive, democratic election open to the Ghanaian public”.
He also challenged the country’s continued description of local government elections as non-partisan, adding that political parties already play significant roles in local elections.
“We come there as assemblymen, and then in Ghana we pretend that it is non-partisan. The pretence has to stop,” he declared.
Haruna Iddrisu also recounted how former President John Agyekum Kufuor attempted to amend the Constitution to make DCEs elective.
He noted that the proposal focused on Article 243(1), but failed to address other constitutional provisions, particularly those dealing with the President’s power to remove DCEs.
He argued that experience demonstrated that any future attempt to make MMDCs elective must be supported by comprehensive constitutional amendments.
The Education Minister also cautioned the current government against repeating the mistakes of the past.
Watch the video below:
Listen to Education Minister Hon. Haruna Iddrisu’s confession from when he was Minority Leader in Nana Addo’s era.
— Harrydarling💖 (@AcheampongHarry) August 12, 2026
The God of NPP and Nana Addo! Wow! 🤨 pic.twitter.com/F0AHKEFLtK
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