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Enjoying all the trappings in the government of a hardworking President, and with positive prospects signaling a possible second term in office, the well-mannered Northern-born-President John Mahama, according to some National Democratic Congress kingpins, must rein in his controversial presidential staffer, Stan Xose Dogbe, or risk throwing away the 2016 elections to the impatient opposition NPP.

That, the said scandal-prone presidential staffer continue being the ‘face’ of the Presidency and the government is not only ruffling feathers among senior members of the NDC and causing consternation within the rank and file of the governing party members, it has also left highly influential and respected Ghanaians embarrassed. On its part, the opposition NPP is only waiting for official campaigning to begin before they unleash their arsenals on the presidency, this paper has gathered.

Indeed, some very influential figures of the NDC, who were ‘victims’ of Stan Dogbe’s growing insolence which they say he shows to everybody except the president, angrily told The aL-hAJJ “if by campaign time in 2016, Stan continues to be the one managing the president, some of us will not be part of the campaign.”

Reports are that the journalist-turned-politician, even though is without any officially known or designated portfolio, has become so powerful that he is now considered the second most powerful official at the seat of government after President Mahama.

According to reports, Stan, as he is affectionately called, has usurped the powers and authority of everyone in the “big House” including the offices of the vice president, Chief of Staff, National Security Adviser and the National Security Coordinator as well as Directors of BNI, Defence intelligence and Research Department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also, the Director of State Protocol.

Sources at the seat of government and the NDC party say Stan has taken advantage of his close association with the first family to install himself a tin-god at the presidency, to the extent that; he disrespects everybody including NDC capos who visit the presidency.

To further entrench himself at his self-created post as in-charge of affairs and to demonstrate he is only next to the president, the previously ‘mere’ presidential staffer is reported to have developed the habit of giving commands to almost everybody in the “big House”, including security capos and protocol officers.

On a not-long-ago Presidential trip to Sunyani, a senior party official who pleaded anonymity, narrated to The aL-hAJJ how Stan Dogbe, in his usual haughtiness and show of importance, perhaps, to demonstrate to the NDC bigwigs on board the aircraft, hardly sat on his seat throughout the over one hour flight. “Over the one hour we were airborne, Stan keeps moving to and fro his seat to engage the president whiles clutching his laptop possibly, to show some of us how valuable he is to the president… he kept doing this until the plane touched down in Sunyani”.

While officials on the trip were said to have been infuriated by this development, none of them, unfortunately, mustered courage to draw the president’s attention to the harm his presidential staffer’s conduct is causing him and its likely repercussions, going into the 2016 elections.
“With this kind of behavior, some of us cannot join the 2016 campaign. I’ve occupied several positions both in government and the party; this is not the time for me to be tossed around by small boys and latter day saints. I will prefer to seat in my house and rest than to be shown such disdain by someone who is young enough to be my son,” an obviously incensed NDC bigwig who pleaded anonymity recently told The aL-hAJJ.

According to another source, Stan Dogbe’s brazen show of his self-acquired authority recently ended him an unwelcomed dirty slaps from an NDC lady operative during President John Mahama’s commissioning of two of the three interchanges of the ongoing Kwame Nkrumah Circle flyover project.

The NDC lady operative was reported incensed by Stan Dogbe’s abrasive attempt at stopping her from exchanging pleasantries with the President who had decided to fraternize with party supporters gathered at the venue to cheer him on.
“The most ominous and at the same time demeaning of Stan Dogbe’s unstoppable insolence was when he nearly succeeded in instructing that the Otumfuo’s Nsumankwaahene, Baffuor Asabre Kogyawoasu Ababio, be removed from his seat on a dais at a function in Kumasi attended by the President when the latter was representing the Ashanti king recently.

Even though the Ashanti regional executives of the party intervened to stop Stan from carrying through his intended action, Baffuor Asabre Kogyawoasu Ababio, sources say, was so embarrassed and enraged and, has sworn never to honor invitation to a program where President Mahama will be present so far as Stan remains the chaperone”.


Another well-known and influential NDC guru who has mentored many NDC activists (name withheld) also complained bitterly about the attitude of Stan Dogbe and how his continued stay at the presidency is keeping them away from the president.

“Most of us cannot share sensitive information with John because if you dare to see him, you will be subjected to all manner of questioning by Stan. For God sake, I’m an elder in the NDC. Do I need to go through all that before I share information with the president? Because I don’t want to be disgraced, I’ve decided not to force myself to see John …whatever information I have will remain with me here,” the NDC guru insisted.

Recently, the Public Relations Officer of the Gonjoland Youth Association, HarunaMahama narrated how Stan Dogbe nearly marred a program organized by association at which President Mahama was the special guest of honour.

Commenting on Stan Dogbe’s recent seizure and destruction of a voice recorder belonging to YahayaKuamoah of GBC, HarunaMahama on his facebook wall wrote; “I had my own encounter with this Stan Dogbe at the Buipe Congress of the Gonjaland Youth Association. As PRO of the Association and as an MC for the programme he kept directing me as to what to do. He cancelled our programme lineup including some activities that were so important. When I politely told him some of the programmes are so important and cannot be cancelled, he told me I can’t tell him what to do. I replied that we own the programme.

I later went straight to President Mahama on the high table and told him some of the activities on the programme lineup cannot be cancelled and he obliged. An activity on the programme that was supposed to be cancelled by Stan Dogbe, that is, Presentation of Awards to Best BECE students in Gonjaland later turned out to be the star program. Later I politely asked Stan Dogbe for a prepared speech of the President and he arrogantly ignored me. But seriously such characters have had a lot of protection from the Presidency for far too long,” HarunaMahama added.
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