A close associate of President John Dramani Mahama has stated emphatically that the outbursts of Alban Bagbin to the effect that President John Dramani Mahama is not accessible was a calculated and deliberate ploy by the Nadowli-Kaleo MP to secure a ministerial position. Alfred Ogbamey disclosed this yesterday when he appeared as a panellist on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ morning show hosted by Kwame Sefa Kayi.

According to Alfred Ogbamey, Alban Bagbin’s rants at President Mahama was mainly aimed at “power sharing”, adding that he thinks he is one of the persons President Mahama should be consulting before taking decisions.

Alfred Ob said that Mr Bagbin had been known to have employed such tactics in the past to secure a ministerial position, recalling he was appointed Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing by the late President John Evans Atta Mills after launching similar attacks against him.

Mr Ogbamey recalled how Alban Bagbin in August 2009 described some close confidants of President Mills as “sycophants, bootlickers and fair weather friends,” who were reaping where they did not sow, and claiming further that some senior officials of government sometimes even attempted to polish the late president’s shoes.

He recalled again that, at the time, Mr Bagbin said it was unfortunate and regrettable that some members of the party who had lost faith in the NDC and had either flirted with the New Patriotic Party or declared their intention to retire from active politics, were then calling the shots at the Castle.

“Some sycophants, some bootlickers, some old boys, some old friends who timidly were hiding somewhere suddenly decided to feel the appetite for political office and [have] taken over,” Mr Bagbin was quoted to have stated.

Mr Bagbin also said President Mills was surrounded by what he called ‘fair weather friends’ who could not help him to achieve his aim of building ‘a better Ghana’ because they lacked the courage to speak the truth but “I am not a diplomat, I am calling a spade a spade, it is better to tell the truth.”

An obviously frustrated Bagbin said he was faced with the daily tantrums of the opposition NPP who contended that the government was not implementing the manifesto on which the NDC was voted into power.

Such complaints, the then Nadowli West Member of Parliament believed were difficult for him to countenance, adding that the government was not creating the opportunity for the leadership of the NDC to understand why the manifesto was not being implemented.

He said members of the party who had been complaining about the performance of the government simply wanted “to see that things are moving in the right direction” as the people of Ghana were promised during the elections.

Not long after this outburst, Alfred Ogbamey recalled, President Mills offered Alban Bagbin an appointment and the attack ceased.