I Will Beat Mahama ―Sylvester Mensah

Flagbearer hopeful for the National Democratic Congress     (NDC), Mr Sylvester Mensah is confident he has all it takes to lead the party in the 2020 elections and to bring the party back to power.

Speaking on Accra Based Citi FM, Mr Mensah indicated, former President John Dramani Mahama was no match for him.

His response comes after the former president hinted his intension to contest the 2020 elections as presidential candidate for the NDC.

Mr. Mahama who has been either indecisive or simply discreet about whether or not to contest the flagbearer race, last Saturday posted on Facebook that he had pondered on the numerous calls on him to contest adding that he will not disappoint his supporters.

But Mr Mensah says, “I’m very confident that the people of this country, our electorates, our delegates would vote for me…I will beat Professor Alabi, I will beat Alban Bagbin, I will beat Dr Spio Garbrah and I will beat former President Mahama in this election and I would become the next flagbearer of the NDC.”

Mahama―Crowd Puller

It could be recalled that during the 2016 elections, Mr Mahama had dazed his opponents when a gargantuan crowd mobbed him at the NDC’s grand rally at the Accra sports stadium.

In yet another defensive statement, Mr Mensah who is also the former boss of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) said; crowds do not indicate victory.

“We saw the crowd at the Accra sports stadium before our elections. I think those crowd don’t mean much. What is important is winning the hearts and minds of our people and we expect that we would move away from our old ways and what didn’t help us in our elections in 2016 and develop new approaches to elections.

“There are several components, you need to have the crowd, you need to meet the people one on one, you need to ensure that your message is sinking,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Head of the Political Science Department at the University of Ghana, Prof. Bossman Asare, has suggested a bleak future for other contestants of the NDC flagbearer race, if Mr Mahama joins.

“I think symbolically, Mr Mahama looks bigger than all the other candidates put together…he is the former president, very popular within the NDC, very popular nationally…As it stands now, I don’t see how any of them can compete and successfully win against Mr Mahama,” he stated.

The way out for the other racers, is to agree and identify one person who would contest against Mahama, Prof. Asare said.

But on the national level, the political science guru predicts Mr Mahama’s comeback as president would depend on the performance of the present government.

“If the NPP is able to do a good job, I will expect that it is going to be very difficult for Mr Mahama to successfully stage a comeback,” Prof Asare said.

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]