Nicknamed by some movie industry stakeholders as the ‘Mugabe of the Actors Guild’ for his seemingly long stay in office, President of Ghana Actors Guild (GAG), Mr Samuel Nii Odoi Mensah, has finally disclosed that he’s had enough and will step down during the next elections.
Speaking to Razz Newspaper, Mr Mensah stated that he’s not going to contest for the Guild’s Presidency in the upcoming elections; rather, his aim is to monitor and make sure the Guild has a very successful election.
Over the period, Mr Samuel Nii Odoi Mensah, who has always blamed the inability of the Guild to organise elections to lack of funds, also stated that; at the end of this year, the Guild will have new executives including a new President.
He lamented that many people in the industry have always wanted him out so he sees no need for him to even think of standing for any position and considering the fact that; he has exhausted two terms in office. Actually, Mr Odoi-Mensah has stayed in office for 10 years instead of the constitutionally mandated 8 years.
Mr Odoi-Mensah, who has no suitable successor in mind for the Guild, said: “I have done what I can. I can’t do it all, so it will be better for the Guild members to identify who’s the best candidate to continue with where I got to. The members know what they need so based on those needs, they can choose a suitable person who will work on their needs and I have no problem with that.”
He continued: “I will never think of using my means to campaign or endorse any candidate. All I will do is to ensure we have peaceful elections.”
When asked about the timeline for the elections, he said that, the old executives are still preparing their report whilst a new committee will be formed to monitor and set a date for the general elections. “Hopefully, the election will come off before December,” Mr Odoi-Mensah assured.
Talking about some of the challenging times during his tenure of office, he said the media has not been friendly with his administration right from day one till date but it got to a point he realised that no matter what one does, a section of the media will criticise, so he realized that, such actions by the media is part of the game and he takes it in his stride.
“Even in your family, sometimes, some of your family members try to find fault in certain things you do, so if your family can criticize you, you need to be ready to take any criticism that comes to you as a leader anytime and move forward,” he said.
