Akufo-Addo's victory won't surpise me – Nunoo-Mensah

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.