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Claim: The Office of the Presidency claimed that Haruna Iddrisu, Member of Parliament for Tamale South, has served as both Majority and Minority Leader in Ghana’s Parliament.
Verdict: False! Haruna Iddrisu has never served as Majority Leader in Ghana’s Parliament.
Full Text
As part of President John Mahama’s regional and sector nominees, the Office of the Presidency released a statement on January 16, 2025, highlighting the profile of Haruna Iddrisu, the nominee for Minister of Education. The statement asserted that the Tamale South MP served as both the Majority and Minority Leader. This assertion has sparked debates on social media platforms, including a Facebook post, with users questioning its accuracy.
Haruna Iddrisu, a prominent figure in Ghanaian politics, has served in several leadership roles within the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament. He became the Minority Leader in 2017, a role he held until 2023, but there is no record of him ever serving as Majority Leader.
Verification
According to Parliamentary Records, Haruna Iddrisu was first elected a Member of Parliament in 2004 to represent Tamale South on the NDC ticket.
Following the NDC’s loss in the 2016 general elections, he was appointed Minority Leader, leading the opposition in Parliament until early 2023.
According to Clement Akoloh of Parliamentary Network Africa, a parliamentary monitoring group, there’s no parliamentary record of Haruna Iddrisu holding the majority leader position.
“He was never a Majority Leader, I don’t know how the Office of the Presidency made such a mistake.”
The Majority Leader is the leader of the majority party in Parliament, typically appointed when their party is in power. Between 2009 and 2017, when the NDC was the ruling party, the position of Majority Leader was held by figures such as Benjamin Kunbuor and Alban Bagbin (For the NDC) and later Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu (after the NPP’s victory in 2016).
Parliamentary Leadership between 2013-2017
The claim that Haruna Iddrisu served as Majority Leader appears to have been an error in the official profile released by the Office of the Presidency. No evidence or parliamentary record indicates that Haruna Iddrisu ever served as one.
Conclusion
The claim that Haruna Iddrisu served as both a Majority and a Minority Leader is false. He has only served as Minority Leader during his tenure in the Parliament. This factual inaccuracy from the Office of the Presidency highlights the importance of thorough verification in official communications.
