Akuffo Addo’s man defends his credentials

The spokesman for the Nana Akuffo Addo campaign machinery, the Friends of Nana Akuffo Addo (FONAA) Mustapha Hamid has also welcomed Senior J. H. Mensah's 3-point condition for the aspirants.

Responding to a series of questions from this reporter at Koforidua over the weekend, Mr. Hamid, a former youth organizer of the ruling NPP said their campaign has always focused on the criteria set by Mr. Mensah.

dailyEXPRESS: Your candidate is a Minister for Foreign Affairs, Yes! but clearly that is not the only criteria you need for the presidency of Ghana. As J. H. Mensah said there are three conditions, being able to win the confidence of the people of Ghana not the NPP only, being able to manage an enterprise etc, with all sincerity, can he meet those conditions?

MH: Exactly those three conditions are what we have been campaigning on. We have been campaigning and saying look, it is Nana Addo who has the track record as far the commitment to democracy, to party politics and the freedom of expression is concerned… the campaign against Acheampong and his UNIGOV idea and the campaign against the PNDC regime and the campaign against even the NDC regime, kumepreko marches on sustained basis from the youthful age of 33…

dailyEXPRESS: Obviously, this anti- anti viewpoints and position do not give you a desired record to effectively manage a country?

MH: What does it take to manage people? What it takes is somebody who can inspire. Handling people around a project and giving ideas. We are looking for someone who can inspire the confidence of millions and millions of Ghanaians behind the NPP project of development and this is a man who have been able to inspire and mobilize millions of people over the years because all those ventures. This was Nana Akuffo Addo in collaboration with other people who were able mobilize millions of Ghanaians behind the projects they wanted to accomplish. That project is the development and freedom that we're enjoying today so obviously this same man who impugned with these qualities can mobilize Ghanaians behind the NPP project…

dailyEXPRESS: J. H. Mensah thinks that the race is being treated like a joke; people also think that not all the contestants are taking the process serious because of the sheer numbers. Your reaction to that.

MH: I think I agree with him, I mean there is no better person to have said that better than the elder man in the party. We are talking about the presidency here, we are not talking about the constituency organizer, secretary etc, where anybody at all can, so to speak, and that is not to downgrade the position of the national organizer. To be a president is a big thing, it requires big vision and so on and so forth, people need to assess themselves again.

dailyEXPRESS: Mr. Mensah asked a question as to what is motivating all of these guys. What do you think is accounting for this? Is it just because the party is democratic?

MH: In my own view, this is my own subjective view and it is that people think that the President has done well in the general management of this country and our economy and our development and our everything and that people think that anybody that becomes flagbearer of the NPP will easily win the elections based on the records of President Kufour. For me, that may be the main reason or single motivating factor for everybody to want to be flagbearer because they think that once you're flagbearer of NPP then you become president but I beg to defer. The records are there that we've done very well in terms of developments etc but at the same time, Ghanaians would also look at the individual who is seeking to become president and assess him on that strength also.

dailyEXPRESS: The president said today that he is monitoring all of his ministers in the race and their performances. Is your candidate able to effectively manage his ministerial responsibilities as well campaign to avoid being dropped from government?

MH: Our candidate is the first if you remember who said that the major goal of every minister is to ensure the success of Kufour administration because his position is that, we are going to campaign on this record and that is the basis on which we will campaign in 2008. We are going to campaign on Kufour's record. So he is doing it, he's doing his work obviously as Ghana's Minister for Foreign Affaires, he's all over the world mobilizing projects. In June & July, we are going to host the African union summit and he is the host minister. He is working towards the achievement of all those goals, he's a key member of the Ghana@50th anniversary celebration but he is able to find time to manage his campaign. Time management is another quality of a good leader so far as we're concerned; he is able to juggle all these responsibility perfectly.