Mahama was not a bad leader - Sylvester Mensah struggles to assess former boss

Former Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and a leading contender in the flagbearership race of the National Democratic Congress, Sylvester Mensah did not have it easy on ‘21 Minutes with KKB’ when asked to assess his former boss, John Dramani Mahama’s four-year-term as president.

Sylvester Mensah could not clearly state whether the former President was a good leader when he took his turn on '21 Minutes with KKB’.

Responding to a question posed by GhanaWeb editor Kwabena Kyenkyenhene Boateng on his assessment of the former President's tenure while in office, Sylvester Mensah described it as not bad. When pushed further to answer to whether or not John Mahama was a good leader, the former NHIA Boss who served both under Presidents John Evans Atta-Mills and John Mahama only said, "John Mahama was not a bad leader."

According to him, President Mahama was not a bad leader in terms of performance as he did very well in terms of infrastructure development, among others.

“If we have the soft factors and the hard factors; and if we need both soft and hard factors to deliver value to the people that will inure to the benefit of the party and translate to electoral votes, perhaps he did exceedingly well as far as the hard factors are concerned,” he explained.

Sylvester Mensah appears unfazed about the keen competition he is likely to face in the NDC presidential race ahead of the 2020 general elections.

In an interview with Accra based Citi FM, Sly, as he is affectionately called stated that he is confident of winning the NDC primaries.

He said, “I will beat Prof. Alabi, I will beat Alban Bagbin, I will beat Dr Spio Garbrah, and I will beat former President Mahama in this election. I will become the next Flagbearer in the next election.”



Meanwhile, pollster and editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper Ben Ephson has advised Sly and others seeking to lead the NDC to the 2020 elections to combine forces in order to put up a competent challenge to Mahama at the party’s primaries.

Mr Mensah is expected to compete with Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, Former Trade Minister, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, former Vice Chancellor of UPSA, Prof Joshua Alabi and former President John Mahama.