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The ongoing tussle from the camp of the founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and his sympathizers to grumble over stiff opposition at the presidency preventing them smooth access to the President has been linked to the absolute powers held by the three most influential men behind President John Evans Atta-Mills. It has now become obvious that Dr. Don Arthur and two of the Ahwoi brothers, Ato and Kwamena, were the strong men behind the scenes at the castle, pulling strings and directing the bearing of the Atta-Mills government. �These men are the life line behind the president. They are very powerful since they advise the president and are the brains behind some major decisions and policies that affect the country, the NDC and it members�, a confidential source at the seat of government disclosed to this to the New Crusading Guide newspaper. The mention of the three high profile officials in the Mills administration as the power brokers in the government gives credence to the incessant complaints by the founder of the NDC Fl. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings that the president is being surrounded by sycophants and greedy bastards. And as a scheme to expose the powerful forces behind the President, what seems to be deliberate plot to echo the NDC founder� position was astonishingly demonstrated by the Greater Accra NDC Executives and the Majority leader in Parliament, Alban Bagbin to attack the President for denying other prominent party members access to make important inputs into the running of the government. Just last week Hon. Alban Bagbin for instance, very undiplomatic of him, castigated the President to affirm the former President Rawlings assertion that there were some �bootlickers, sycophants and greedy bastards� around the President John Atta-Mills who have declared to the whole world that �he is his own man� and indeed there is only one president in the country. The majority leader admitted that he had no knowledge of the names of the so-called greedy bastards ascribed by the former President Rawlings and neither was he close to the Mills presidency to know the greedy clique. �There is a perception that the President is running the government as a private enterprise 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, sycophants, some boot lickers, some old boys, some old friends who timidly decides to feel appetite for political office and then takeover�. Hon Bagbin was quoted last week in the media. He continued that �I think if government is receptive enough to allow some space and create some structure and mechanisms for senior members of the party outside the executives and Members of Parliament to discuss and deliberates on governance of the country, many of these public pronouncements might not find space�. A grapevine source from the camp of the NDC in the Eastern Region also hinted that, the firm positioning of the three men (Dr. Arthur and the Ahwois) around the President was a strategy to keep the government focused and running from anticipated interference from the NDC founder and his backbenchers. And especially, to entrench the future position of the President and his men in the NDC leadership as glaring indications by the founder to �hijack� the party from the government was imminent. Among top names tipped as being groomed by the �gang of 3� in the Mills government alongside the Vice President to take over from President Mills, was the Minister for Agriculture Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi. Their strategy for a winning choice to take over from President Mills has been detected by the NDC founder and his allies who are making frantic effort to make the Mills government unpopular in the eyes of its own members, ridiculing the government with all sort of names. More bashing from other bigwigs in the NDC are yet to come on the heels of Hon. Moses Asaga, MP for Nabdam and Hon. Alfred Agbesi from Ashaiman who had jointed the NDC firing list against their own government.