Ghana’s ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) official Mustapha Gbande has accused some of President John Mahama’s ministers of feuding with their deputies, in an interview reported on 10 October 2026.
Gbande is an NDC deputy general secretary and a Deputy Director of Operations at the Office of the President. Speaking on Asempa FM, he said the rivalries go beyond ministries. He said some chief executives of state agencies were not on working terms with their own deputies.
“There are ministers who don’t talk to their deputies,” he said.
He also alleged that some appointees were paying journalists to attack one another. He named no one and gave no evidence.
The remarks matter because they come from a party official who works inside the Presidency. They are also a public admission of strain within a government less than two years into its term. Gbande warned that the infighting could undermine Mahama’s performance and frustrate NDC supporters, who expect appointees to focus on delivering the government’s promises.
He said some of those now in office had contributed little when the party was campaigning to win power. Now that they hold positions, he said, they were using them to fight internal battles. He criticised the idea that party leaders should keep quiet about this out of loyalty.
Gbande said he had raised the matter with the President directly. He said he had repeatedly pressed for a reshuffle, and that some in the party had responded by suggesting he should be removed as well. He said his job at Jubilee House, the seat of the Presidency, was the reason he had held back from speaking more forcefully.
Mahama has already made changes this year. On 8 June, the Secretary to the President, Callistus Mahama, said the President would review all ministers and heads of state institutions to decide whether they would be kept, moved or removed.
The first reshuffle followed on 7 August. Mahama nominated Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings as Environment Minister and Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga as Local Government Minister, and moved Kenneth Gilbert Adjei to Defence. On 26 August, he swapped the labour and special initiatives portfolios and moved Deputy Defence Minister Ernest Brogya Genfi to a presidential adviser role.
