Alban Bagbin, You Can’t Fool Anybody

There’s no
doubt that Hon. Alban Bagbin is one of the finest politicians of our era.
He made his
mark especially when he was the Minority Leader in parliament. His lamb-like
persona and his ability to drive home his point on the floor of parliament
using wit won him several admirers. But his utterances, actions and inactions
in the recent past reveals a character flaw that is unbecoming of a politician
of his stature.

His verbal
attacks on President Mahama this few days does not come as a surprise to those
who have noticed the character flaw in him. It is vintage Bagbin in hisability to
exploit an opportunity to
further his parochial interest.

In 2009, feeling peeved that he had not been made a Minister,
Bagbin took advantage of Rawlings allegations that Mills was surrounded by
“greedy bastards” to level his own allegation against President Mills.
The accusations Bagbin levelled against Mills is no
different from those he is levelling against President Mahama today. In 2009,
he alleged that President Mills had “surrounded himself with ‘sycophants’,
‘bootlickers’ and ‘fair-weather friends’ who were prepared to clean his shoes.
For President Mahama, Bagbin has replaced ‘sycophants’, ‘bootlickers’ and
‘fair-weather friends’ with family and friends.
Bagbin also posited that President Mills “has failed
miserably” on SADA. For President Mahama, Bagbin has replaced SADA with
corruption.
Soon after all these attacks on President Mills,
Bagbin was appointed Minister for Works and Housing. Suddenly, nobody heard him
talk again. Did his appointment see the sycophants, bootlickers and
fair-weather friends around President Mills vanish? Did his appointment result
in President Atta Mills becoming a success as far as SADA was concerned?
In Rawlings’ House in 2009, Bagbin called on party
members to feel free to openly criticize President Mills. This he said will
help deepen democracy within the
government. After he was appointed Minister by President Mills, Bagbin told
Mrs. Rawlings, who had criticized President Mills to shut up! If this is not
hypocrisy and double standards, then one does not know what it is.
Meanwhile, it is also common knowledge that Bagbin
as a Minister was one of the Minister who was not accessible to people. He
rarely picked calls made to him. It is an irony that Bagbin is today
complaining that he cannot get access to the President. Indeed, if his claim is
true (which we know is not) then it is the law of karma that is visiting him.
Alban Bagbin, no doubt, wants to use the same route
he used to get into cabinet Minister
position under Mills to get similar position under President John Mahama. We
hope the President does not fall for this gimmick. With all this history about
Bagbin, need we say that all the noise he is making is to serve his own
parochial interest. In my case, as a matter of principle, any member of
government who wants to PUBLICLY criticize the government he belongs to is free
to do so; but he must resign before he does that.
It is not strange that Bagbin is receiving support
especially from those who have not been given positions in the Mahama
government and are therefore bitter because they think that it is their divine
right to be appointed to positions in every NDC government. It happened under
Mills when those who did not get appointments under him turned against him.
History is repeating itself.

“The world is bad
One does not know whom
to trust
The good ruler who
stands for the people
Becomes a victim too
soon
And bad rulers like bad
source, stay longer
A world that knows not
what it wants
A dizzy world, this”
President Mahama can relax in the comfort of the
knowledge that the vast majority of NDC supporters are solidly behind him. If
the few renegades, however, succeed in getting him out the seat of the NDC
leadership at congress as they are planning to do before the 2016 elections, so
be it. Let them take over the NDC and win the 2016 election. Then they can rule
to satisfy the Bagbins of the world.
“Whoever thinks that he
can Rule better than our king
Let him first go home
and rule his wives
Then he will know how
hard to rule is hard
Meat that has fact will
prove it by the heat of the fire”