I ran a mature campaign – Oteng-Mensah
Francisca Oteng-Mensah, the 22-year-old who last Saturday got an overwhelming endorsement by delegates to contest as New Patriotic Party Parliamentary candidate in the Kwabre East Constituency of Ashanti in 2016, has explained she won because she run a matured campaign.
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“I focused on delivering my message and it paid off. My strategy was that any time I have the platform; I go straight to the point and told them what I wanted to do. I told them why they should give me that chance rather than going there to insult other candidates.”
Oteng-Mensah who turned 22 on February 14, 2015 could become the youngest parliamentarian in Ghana at age 24 should she win the general elections in 2016. Her constituency is a ‘safe’ seat for the NPP.
She beat the incumbent MP, Kofi Frempong who had been in Parliament since 2004. The NPP organised the primaries last Saturday to elect parliamentary candidates in 247 constituencies for the 2016 elections.
She won the Kwabre East constituency with 331 votes, as against 189 by the incumbent Kofi Frempong. The other candidates Lawyer Osei Poku got 202 and K. Adjei- Sefa had 33 votes.
There have been commendations as well as criticisms for the young lady with regards to her age and the fact that she was still a law student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.
Some have questioned how she would be able to combine her education and duties as a parliamentarian.
Others have argued she won because her father, Dr Kwaku Oteng, owner of Kumasi based Angel Group of Companies sponsored her campaign.
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Dr Oteng owns the Kumasi-based Angel Group of Companies that operates a number of properties including Angel Herbal, Angel FM, Angel TV and Angel Educational Complex among a host of other holdings.
He was said to have provided the financial muscle to his daughter’s campaign.
Responding to the criticism on Accra-based Oman FM Monday morning, Oteng-Mensah admitted her father sponsored her campaign but said the injection was a tiny fraction of the general output that led to her win.
“Yes God has blessed my dad with money, and yes he sponsored me. He helped our campaign with flyers, posters and a whole lot but that wasn't the major determining factor for my win. We did a lot of work. We worked for it. The truth is that we had a convincing message and organised a matured campaign.”
“Most of the people believed in the message and felt I acted matured and I think that is what motivated them to vote for me.”
“24hours after the election, I still could not believe I had won and that it was like a dream to me. I’m still surprised and I’m still shocked. I’m still asking myself there were four aspirants and why me”.
With regards to her education, she explained by the time, she would be going to Parliament in January 2017 if she wins the general elections, she would be left with five months to complete her LLB programme at KNUST.
"Either I would seek for a transfer or I’d defer the programme," she said.
She explained education has no end and that there was no point concluding that one would want to finish with all the education one wants to achieve before embarking on a venture.
“You can’t decide to wait when an opportunity was available, you can do something along side education. There are so many parliamentarians who are still in school, some are even schooling outside of Ghana.
"I have decided to dedicate myself and commitment to the youth and that is what I’m doing," she said.