Volta MPs Pick Sly

It has emerged that a substantial number of Members of Parliament from the Volta Region on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have expressed their preference for Sylvester Adinam Mensah as the 2020 presidential candidate for the party.

THE PUBLISHER sources in the NDC Volta Caucus in Parliament said their decision to back Sly Mensah was made known recently when Mr. Alban Bagbin, MP for Nadowli-Kaleo, met them in a quest to lobby their support for his NDC-flagbearer ambition.

“It is confirmed that Hon Bagbin sought audience with the Volta Caucus of Parliament in the last week prior to Parliament going on recess. The main purpose was to lobby his colleagues to support his bid” the source stated.

The source continued: “In reaction to a position from a member that the Caucus would advocate for a leader from the Volta Region, Hon. Bagbin, oblivious to the Caucus’s choice quickly pledged to step aside if a candidate emerged from the Volta Region.

“It was then that the caucus put it to him that Sylvester Adinam Mensah was their choice from the Volta Region” the source added.

He however expressed belief that former President John Mahama could also get some support from the Volta MPs but that would be from just a few of them.

Mr. Bagbin the source revealed further was said to be jittery and somewhat attempted to push his luck by saying Sly was more of a Greater Accra candidate than one from the Volta Region.

Sly, a former Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has his biological parents from Keta in the Volta Region and La, in the Greater Accra Region.

His dad, Lovelace P.C Mensah, was a diplomat and a politician and one of the international foot soldiers of President Nkrumah. He also served as a diplomat in Ghana’s Mission in the then Congo Kinshasa now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mr. Mensah popularly referred to as “Sly” is seen in the NDC is a unifier, a marketable candidate whose persona is set to end the era of factionalism in the party.

Interestingly, it noted that Mr. Bagbin, the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament and another contender for the presidential candidacy of the Umbrella party appear abandoned by the Volta Caucus in Parliament.

The 5 flag-bearer hopefuls include Dr. Ekow Spio Garbah, a former Trades and Industry Minister under the John Mahama government; Former Vice Chancellor of the University for Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Prof. Joshua Alabi, and Member of Parliament for Nadowli-Kaleo, Alban Bagbin.

Sly has served as a zonal coordinator in the revolutionary era of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), a Regional Organizer and Regional Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which sprouted out of the PNDC to a Member of Parliament for La Dadekotopon and recently as the Chief Executive of the NHIA.