Mills Man Dares Bagbin

Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah

The insinuations cast last week by the Founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Jerry John Rawlings, to the effect that the 10-month-old Atta Mills Administration is infested with 'greedy bastards' is certainly provoking a chain reaction within the ruling party.

In the latest political spillover, the deputy Local Government Minister, , virtually held the throat of the Majority Leader in Parliament, Alban Bagbin, for supporting the 'greedy bastards' theory.

Hon. Bagbin on Wednesday accused President Mills of surrounding himself with sycophants, intimidating and repulsive officials, whose activities were taking a negative toll on the new government.

But a seemingly enraged Afriyie-Ankrah dared the Majority Leader to name those officials if indeed he knew what he was talking about. According to him, Bagbin's statements were not only worrisome, but also unexpected of a Majority Leader in Parliament.

Speaking on Joy Fm, the Deputy Minister said he was the least impressed with the utterances of Hon. Bagbin, which he considered rather blanket.

“It is unfair; he should mention the names because we are all part of the government. When he makes those general statements, it creates a difficulty for everybody. Who are those people? Is it Ayariga, the spokesperson, Koku Anyidoho, his secretary, or the Chief of Staff?”

He said it was appalling that the Majority Leader, who is a Cabinet member of the government, found no other platform to vent out his grievances than through the medium of radio.

Ankrah said Bagbin, instead of using his good offices to enhance the image of the party, was setting a bad example for what he called the younger generation of the party.

It would be recalled that the Majority Leader, in an attempt to confirm a report by DAILY GUIDE, described some people close to the President as sycophants, bootlickers, and fair-weather friends.

He said those confidants of the President would not be able to help him achieve his dream of building a better Ghana. Even though he would not mention names, Bagbin regretted that NDC members who lost faith in the party sometime ago and flirted with the New Patriotic Party, were now calling the shots at the Castle while those who put their lives on the line for the party to regain power had become personae non grata.

The Majority Leader, who was speaking in support of Jerry Rawlings' claims that there were some greedy bastards in President Mills' government, said there was now a gulf between the party and government, to the extent that members were not being fully educated on why the party's manifestoes were not being implemented.

This did not go down well with the deputy Local Government Minister, who called for decorum in handling party matters.

“I am extremely worried about the trend that is emerging in our party where leading members have taken the right to coming out publicly to lambast the President,” he noted.

But the Nadowli West MP said politics had no room for euphemism, stressing that things needed to be told the way they were.

“I am not a diplomat; I am calling a spade a spade. It is better to tell the truth,” he retorted.

By Bennett Akuaku