Alban Bagbin, one of the members of the presidential task force on government priority projects has dared President John Mahama “to bring it on” if he thinks his comments on corruption were not factual.
Bagbin, who said Monday that he took “strong exception” to “insults” rained on him by Presidential Staffer, Stan Dogbe, over his (Bagbin’s) concerns regarding President Mahama’s lacklustre demeanour in dealing with corruption in his administration, served notice that he is ready to meet the president and Stan Dogbe boot-for-boot if need be.
“…I don’t take kindly to people issuing insults [at me]; I never did that when I spoke. I talked on issues but for the spokesperson, or is it the Director of Communications at the Presidency - Stan Dogbe - who was nowhere near the fight to get us back into power, to now be at the Presidency to be insulting me, that I will not take kindly [to] and I’m saying that they should bring it on”, Bagbin dared on Radio Gold Monday.
Pressed by host, Alhassan Suhuyini, for clarifications about whether he was daring the president specifically “to bring it on”, the former health minister answered: “All of them; all of them”.
According to him, Stan Dogbe’s “insulting” response to his (Bagbin’s) concerns about corruption in the Mahama administration did not happen on the president’s blind side.
“…He was with the president before he issued the thing on social media…he put it on social media”, Bagbin noted.
Reminded by Suhuyini that he is an appointee of the same president he is fighting in the media, Bagbin retorted: “And so?”
“You think I treasure being a member of a taskforce or being a cabinet minister? You think I treasure that? I only look for opportunity to serve my people. I’m a Lawyer by profession…ask my colleagues when I was practising in Accra,” he pointed out.
According to the former Minority and Majority Leader, he is ready to fall for his convictions, but said he will not jump ship but rather prefers he’s pushed out.
“If I’m dismissed, I‘ll accept it but to take a defeatist attitude by resigning, that is not the best thing to do”, he said.
Suhuyini then asked: “But if you think the President is fighting you and you are daring him to bring it on, how do you work with him?”
Bagbin: Oh! You see I’m working for the country ooo; I’m working for the country.
Suhuyini: At his behest as president.
Bagbin: That is not the case. NDC is supposed to be in power. You understand. I was part of the people who went round to promise the youth, everybody to vote for us, ok, so if I have that opportunity, I have to serve the people. It is the case that the letter emanates from the President but I’m not serving the President; I’m serving Ghanaians…If the President now feels that his request for me to serve Ghanaians [and] I’m not doing so, he should withdraw it.
