Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Bernard Ahiafor, has reminded Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin that no matter how he perceives himself, he remains the leader of the opposition in Parliament.

According to Ahiafor, the Effutu MP sometimes struggles to accept his role as Minority Leader, behaving as though he is still in charge of the Majority side.

“It’s about time for him to realise that he is no longer the Majority Leader, but he’s a Minority Leader. He can use any adjectives to describe himself—mighty, happy, whatever—but for me, he is in the minority,” Ahiafor stated on PM Express on Monday, February 3.

“It doesn’t look like he understands that, and sometimes I believe he forgets himself.”

The Akatsi South MP further expressed frustration over Afenyo-Markin’s approach to committee matters, particularly his tendency to backtrack on agreements.

"I have a very good relationship with him, but sometimes I find it very difficult to take the excess,” he said. “I am one particular person who will not agree on one thing with you, and after a few minutes or a few hours, you behave as if that was not what we agreed upon. It pisses me off.”

Ahiafor also dismissed Afenyo-Markin’s claims that the Clerk of the Appointments Committee had been partisan or had withheld reports from him. He insisted that all committee members, including the Minority Leader, receive the necessary documents.

“There is nothing that the clerk of the committee has put out there that we have not agreed upon. There is no occasion that the clerk will not give me and give the Minority Leader a draft report.

"Even if you go back to recap, there are instances where the two of us will be sitting down, and the clerk will hold two reports, give me one, and give him one—in the full glare of the camera,” he explained.

Clarifying parliamentary procedures, Ahiafor stressed that committee clerks take instructions from the Chairman, not the Ranking Member.

"By our practice, clerks of the committee don’t take decisions from the Ranking Member. They take decisions from the Chairman of the Committee. That is why their letters mostly read, ‘I have been directed by the Chairman of the Committee,’ not the Ranking Member," he noted.

"But because he is coming from the Majority point of view, I think he sometimes forgets himself and fails to realise that he is now in the Minority.”

Meanwhile, Afenyo-Markin has reiterated that the Minority Caucus will not be intimidated despite their limited numbers in Parliament.

"We are also beginning to observe a breakdown of security, law, and order within the precincts of Parliament, especially last night at the Committee room by some NDC thugs. These were hired, organized, and brought in to come and intimidate the Minority. But let me tell the NDC we are few, but we are a mighty few. We are fair in our conviction, we are determined, and we shall never surrender to their intimidation," he declared.