NDC Chair must be all-time party leader – Bagbin

A flag bearer-aspirant of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Alban Bagbin, has said that if he wins the flag bearer slot and is able to win the presidency, too, he will ensure that the party’s constitution is amended to make the National Chairman of the NDC the all-time leader of the party.

According to him, that is one way of strengthening the party to make it more formidable in the democratic dispensation.

Speaking on the Citizen Show on Accra100.5FM on Tuesday, 29 January 2019, Mr Bagbin told host Kwabena Bobie Ansah that: “I will recognize myself with the party that has made me the president. I will not lead the party, I will allow the national chairman to be the leader of the party, and, so, you have to get the constitution to be amended because the president has a lot to do."

“More importantly, the president is the product of the party, and, so, the leadership of the party should be left to the Chairman of the party and the President will be answerable to the party."

“Democracy itself is about sharing of power, it is not about the concentration of power. What we have done in Ghana is to concentrate on one person called the president."

"He is the leader of the party, he is the leader of the country, he is the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, he appoints everybody and disappoints everybody; that is what we have now and that is not a democracy."

“In a democracy, you have to make sure that the power is not concentrated in one person or one body. That is why you have checks and balances. We are having difficulties because everybody is thinking that the president is all-in-all and that is wrong.”