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As the race for the Ashanti Regional Chairmanship position of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) reaches its crescendo, one of the five contestants, Frank Osei Mensah, one of the biggest financiers of the party, is confident of victory. According to Mr. Osei Mensah, he poses unwavering quality and competence to step into the shoes of the outgoing Regional Chairman, Mr. Ohene Agyekum, now the ambassador to United State of America. He was speaking to the Crystal Clear Lens in exclusive interview recently in the Garden City Kumasi, the Regional Capital of the Ashanti Region. Mr. Agyekum is regarded as one of the toughest NDC political kingpins in the heart of Ashanti Region, the stronghold of New Patriotic Party (NPP), where most of the clutches of the hawks of NPP emanate from. For eight years that NDC stayed in opposition, Mr. Agyekum was one of the lots that bored the brunt of political vindictiveness by the NPP. Despite that, he remained loyal and committed to the cause of his party. His tenacity of purpose in the party, mostly in 2004 and 2008 crucial general elections in the region earned him great respect from among his peers, especially from his opponents. Mr. Agyekum�s sterling show of purposefulness endears Mr. Osei Mensah to enter the race, according to him. He said the desire to contest for the post was born out of his conviction that the Ashanti Region needs another strong personality of stature with wide range experience to withstand the politics of NPP bigwigs in the region. On Tuesday, December 16, 2009, the NDC will hold Ashanti Regional Congress in Kumasi, the first after the party had recaptured power, to elect new officers to steer the affairs of the party for the next two or more years. Other four contenders are Alhaji Mohammed Sani, Thomas Kwabena Brimah, Yaw Owusu Obinpeh Dominic Anumah. Campaigns by various contestants in the region have indicated that the chair is expected to be keenly contested. As the voting day draws nearer, all the contestants have stepped up campaigns strategies in order to win vote of the delegates. In spite of the zealousness of the supporters of contenders, the campaigns in general have been peaceful and clean. He is a big time financier of the party at the constituency, regional and national levels. He is a businessman and a member of the fund raising committee of the NDC. Mr. Osei Mensah was the first to make the declaration in Kumasi at a grand meeting of the regional cadres� front of the NDC, where the former President JJ Rawlings. He stated that the party in the Ashanti region needed people who would be resourceful, modesty and could work with enthusiasm with open doors policies with the people at heart to run the party in the right direction and to help attract more people to it. Mr. Mensah noted that it was time leadership of the party that identified the needs of the members and their positions to help them put their feet on solid foundation and by so doing making the party stronger. He also touched on the need to empower the grassroots supporters and rebuild the party structures right from the grassroots so that so long as the grass roots remains strong the party and the government would also be stronger. �We do not take positions to lord it over people or for our own parochial interest. We need to be bold and work all out by putting the fear behind us and not cow ourselves into believing that Ashanti region is the strong hold of the NPP and so we cannot breakthrough. He said that when things were tough in the early days of the NDC in the Ashanti region and people dare not wear NDC shirts or colours, he was the one who put himself up to lead the party in the region and that everybody saw the kind of work he and his team did for the party when others took steps back for fear of intimidations and harassment by the NPP. He assured the people that his leadership would bring a kind of relief to them and that with his own resources he would make the party more attractive in the region and ensure that they win more seats and votes in the region in subsequent elections. In his address, the former President J.J Rawlings admonished the people not to let disguised NPP element infiltrate the camp of the party with money to capture positions and destroy the party. He called on the people to choose those who can lead the party from the branch to the national levels. �The way you demonstrated to NPP in the last election that money cannot buy your continents, so must you do to people who are incompetent and would like to influence you with money? Choose those that have toiled for the party with their strength, mind and resources in challenging times.�