Victory for New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag
bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in December’s presidential poll will not
come as a surprise to Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah (rtd), the former National
Security Coordinator has said.Asked if he would be surprised in the
event of an Akufo-Addo triumph in the upcoming elections, the former Chief of
Defence Staff told Chief Jerry Forson on Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM on
Thursday, 29 September: “Will I be surprised? On what basis will I be surprised?
I don’t have any fact as I sit here on the political front, so how will I be
surprised if he wins? If the people’s choice is him, who am I to say
no?”
He added: “I was Nana Akufo-Addo’s campaign manager in 1998. … In
the early ’40s and ’50s, as young men, we were all after Kwame Nkrumah because
he gave us hope for the future. After Nkrumah, there was no politics in my life
until PNDC (Provisional National Defence Council) came and I got involved. I
left and went away (to UK). I came back in 1994 and I did a bit of politics with
the NPP, so, I have served with every major political party in this country. So,
today, I see myself as a statesman, not as a politician. That is why if I see
people who are not serving the country properly, I speak up.”
“I am not
going to say NPP [or] NDC. If NPP did something which I think was right, I say
they have done well and same with the NDC: if it is wrong, I say it is
wrong.
“I am in Winneba and President Mahama is in power. He has put
someone in charge of Winneba, yet we don’t have water, and so because I am
working with the NDC I should keep quiet? If my niece is not paid for months,
should I keep quiet? No, I won’t do that. So, at this stage, I am someone who
will speak on issues that will make Ghana a better place.”
Brig. Gen
Nunoo-Mensah (rtd) was appointed a member of the PNDC on 2 January 1982. He,
however, resigned in November 1982 over differences with the leader of the
junta, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings. He was the campaign manager for Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo's bid for nomination as the NPP's candidate for presidential
elections in 1998.
Brig. Gen Nunoo-Mensah (rtd) later defected from the
New Patriotic Party to the National Democratic Congress, then in opposition. He
and a number of former military and police capos were banned from all military
and police installations by the ruling NPP government after they had attended a
lunch meeting with former President Rawlings.
Brig. Gen Nunoo-Mensah
(rtd) was very instrumental in the campaign of the opposition NDC in the
December 2008 elections in Ghana. |
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