People around Mahama sidelining NDC - Kwabena Adjei

National Chairman of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Kwabena Adjei has said some people around President John Mahama are doing everything possible to marginalise the party from the presidency.

Speaking in an interview with STARR FM’s Ibrahim Alhassan about some of the challenges facing the party and his administration, Dr Adjei said: “…the second one is the marginalisation of the party when the flag-bearer of the party assumes the position of leadership of the party, then people will just surround the flag-bearer or the president and then leave the party aside, marginalise the party.”

“We feel that it’s a big weakness so we want to look at it. If the government of the NDC has to survive then the party itself must survive,” the incumbent Chairman who is seeking re-election said.

According to him, even though the president is the leader of the party, “some people have surrounded that leadership to the extent that they don’t want any reform, because any reform will go against them.”

He said: “The President has a way of listening to you, but he is not the problem.”

“The problem is the people who surround him: they just come and marginalise the party,” he bemoaned.

“The President tells me: ‘Oh! ‘Wayo’, you are the leader of the party,’ but the people around him know that I am not the leader of the party and so you can’t exert the power and the influence necessary to bring government and your party under control.”

Dr Kwabena Adjei is fighting off competition from former Minister of Trade and Industry Dan Abodakpi and National Disaster Management Organisation Coordinator Kofi Portuphy for the national chairman slot of the party.

The party’s congress is scheduled for the Ashanti regional Capital, Kumasi on December 20, 2014.