Bagbin Dares Prez Mahama: �Bring It On�; I Serve Ghana, Not You
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 dares and says he serves Ghana and not the President.
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 the 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.