Opinions of Saturday, 19 February 2011

Columnist: Daybreak

Bagbin Must Go (Part 1)

Honorable Alban Bagbin, the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing is treading on an overstretched tight rope which is in danger of snapping when least tampered with.

According to sources at the Presidency, Mr. Bagbin risk losing his ministerial appointment because of his private discussions with Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings with regards to partnering her for the 2012 general elections when elected as presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Though the Former First Lady is yet to make a public statement on her ambitions, she has officially told elders of the party that she would run. DAYBREAK sources say Mr. Bagbin who sealed the legislature before he became a member of the executive wants to start his presidential ambitions first as a Vice and later as President of Ghana.

Thus, Mr. Bagbin has begun his move secretly in making sure his long-time dream becomes a reality, and this we gather, has put him in the bad books of the President and some of his advisors. They contend that even though Mr. Bagbin has been made a Minister by Professor Mills, he is still not loyal to him {President Mills} hence campaigning for his removal and joining forces with the Rawlingses’ who have never seen anything good with the Mills-Mahama administration. “When he was leader of Parliament, did you see the type of statements he made…..they were all triggered because he has carefully planned his strategy and we never knew but it is working to perfection and is time we kick him out of the executive so that he nurses that ambitions of his in Parliament”, the source said. Even though Mr. Bagbin has sworn heaven and earth that the allegations are not true, his double tongue creates a lots of problems for him.

“Is he not the same person who said the President has surrounded himself with some sycophants, some bootlickers, some old boys, and some old friends who timidly were hiding somewhere suddenly decided to feel the appetite for political office and have taken over the affairs of government?

Is he now a bootlicker like the others? Since he became a member of executive, can he tell us a program he has put in place to achieve the aim of building a better Ghana? He claims that he has courage that others don’t have, he should call a spade a spade, it is better to tell the truth and stop throwing tantrums over his ambition.”

They have also accused him of receiving a Mercedes Benz Saloon car from STX Ghana just for facilitating the takeoff of the project and this has led to him not talking with the second gentleman of the land. Source: DAYBREAK