Former President Jerry John Rawlings has been given tacit support by the Majority Leader in Parliament, Alban S. K. Bagbin, on the controversial issue of President Mills being surrounded and barricaded by bootlickers, sycophants and cronies in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), who are “recklessly dissipating” the nation’s scarce resources. The NDC founder last week fired one of his usual tirades at the presidency, blasting the governance style of President John Evans Atta Mills and his ministers, and vowing not to put his life on the line any longer for people he described as ‘greedy bastards’ in the ruling party. Speaking in an exclusive interview with DAILY GUIDE at Sogakope in the Volta Region, during a three-day budget review workshop for Members of Parliament (MPs) organized by the Canadian Parliamentary Centre in collaboration with Ghana’s Parliament, Alban Bagbin noted that the various comments by former President Rawlings and other senior party officials, concerning the outlook and performance of government, were appropriately made in good faith. Admitting he had not been provided with the names of the so-called greedy bastards by former President Rawlings; and neither was he close enough to the Mills presidency to know the greedy cohorts, Bagbin said it was widely being “perceived that various presidents are running governments like private enterprises and that after winning elections, the people who made it possible for them to win the elections are not being properly factored into the equation”. “But rather, some sycophants, some bootlickers, some old boys, some old friends who timidly were hiding somewhere suddenly decide to feel appetite for political office and then takeover,” the Majority Leader stressed, cautioning that these are some of the first signals of weakening governments and parties which create the environment for losses in elections. Commenting on various frustrations of former President Rawlings and senior party members, Hon. Bagbin who is also the MP for Nadowli West in the Upper West Region cautioned, “It is important that our presidents should take note and be guided by this”. The outburst by NDC senior members, the Majority Leader indicated, showed one thing: “There seems to be no internal mechanism or discussion of issues raised by former President Rawlings and others and therefore, people are compelled to go public after some efforts to get a listening ear have failed. “I think if government is receptive enough to allow some space and create some structures and mechanisms for the government, senior members of the party outside the executive and Members of Parliament to discuss and deliberate on governance of the country, many of these public pronouncements might not find space,” Hon. Bagbin stressed, regretting that “unfortunately that is not yet the case”. Former NDC presidential aspirant and current Chief Executive Officer of Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, was one of those apparently sidelined by President Mills, for others a number of party cadres described as sycophants and bootlickers, after he had campaigned vigorously for NDC to win power. This situation, political pundits suggested, had infuriated Dr. Spio-Garbrah, an associate of Rawlings, pushing him to describe some of Mills’ ministers as ‘team B’ players. Additionally, former President Rawlings was recently reported to have lamented that he was being sidelined in a party he apparently formed with his toil and blood, not being given a listening ear and humiliated by Mills’ administration just like its predecessor (NPP) did. Source: Daily Guide