Herbert Mensah

EXCERPTS FROM A CONVERSATION ….

Kwabena Osafo-kantanka:

Could it even get more emotional and blessed in a mixed morning of sobriety, stock-taking, and a befitting national un-partisan mourn for a statesman par excellence with a much less desired political stint! An illustrious son of a nation endangered with species of his kind! A politician in my most candid and sincerest estimation, with every respect under the sun for his service and accomplishments for our nation, that lived below par! Anyway, on this virtual platform too, I have come to benefit and appreciate the invaluable and indispensable nature, the worth and value of friendship, however virtual! Cos reading most of your post, I jot the motivation down, I aspire to reflect in my transient life the inspiration from those words, and I memorise to recite as my guiding post the bills I read from this platform!! This is not flattery but compliments!

Herbert Mensah:

Kwabena you humble me because my words …. they are merely thoughts. I try and and say what is on my mind or what others write which i find interesting and share. I also try to go where others would not expect. You have clarity of expression which is not common these days and i hope others will also be motivated by your words. Times have changed and our society is young. Values have changed and yet there is a global standard. The older minority control our destinies and yet are so out of touch with the majority. We struggle with a western styled democracy and yet we all pray for peace. The process requires leadership with vision and yet we are not being led. Our institutions do not work and yet we seek a sense of justice and equity. But i am a Ghanaian who believes in Ghanaians and Ghana and proudly so! A parody? …. no!!! i am simply a Global being!

Kwabena Osafo-kantanka:

My dearest Herbert, No! I guess that’s a wrong salutation. One of my favourite Idols of all time! Once again out of truthfulness I churn out these compliments to you. For just by a simple simplification of my name, you shouldn’t burst a nerve to deduce my supporting football club in the nation! Thorn between Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Tiger Woods, and Marco Van Basten, Serena Williams, and Jo Wilfred Tsonga, there’s no persons during my late teens to early twenties who got me hooked onto Kotoko to the ‘occultic’ level more than Mr. Herbet Mensah! I learnt this man was born with at least to humbly exaggerate silver spoon in his mouth, yet with all his inherent business acumen and accomplishment, Mr. Herbert Mensah decided to render an ‘unpaid and thankless’ service in comparative analysis to the success he was chalking outside football circles as the chairman of Kumasi Asante Kotoko!! Mr. Hebert Mensah, you have no faintest idea the degree of excitement and my level of intoxication when you took reign at the helms of Kotoko! A mixture of youthful and an addicted fan almost to a cult status, it didn’t matter how Kotoko performed, even if in an unimaginable situation we lost to hearts, all I that matters most to me is a distinguished and accomplished chirman, ‘dusted’ of course as the ‘bossu’ of Kotoko which I could bragg and rushed with amongst my friend! Sir, so you see, if my words humbles you, then my blurry eyes, my wet palms, my palpitating heart, and my shaking fingers as I type bears witness to how your motivational post and your ever-abiding sense of nationalism which is never obstructed by your cosmopolitan nature makes me cry!! For its soo soo surreal for me to be commenting on the post of my one time idol of all times! Just even reading from your comments posted, shouldn’t I rather be the weakling creature to ever be thankful to the starry array of providence hanging somewhere in the highest heavens, to share, like, learn, be inspired and be motivated by your genius in creative writing and the singular privilege it affords me to more them free of charge! You always gives credit to originality and authors of your post where’s is due! Do I need to pay for any integrity and honesty lessons anywhere else? Herbert, do you remember this post from you; “Nothing to lose, nothing to hide, nothing to prove, if love so be our ultimate motivation”??!! Hmmm…. You may never know the impact and the effect of that statement upon my life, but should destiny smiles at me at any given point in life;-Then, I will have nothing to lose, nothing to prove, and nothing to hide in giving you and your inspirational post the due credit!!!!!

Herbert Mensah:

Kwabena you have laid me naked with your beautiful words of which i am not sure i am totally deserving but importantly if my tenure carried any level of positivity for you and yours then my servitude was worth it.  I always recognised that mine was to serve and in order to rebuild i had to enter into an open and strong bond with the people that mattered and they were and are the supporters. indeed i only remember the good times. The building process was the plan and my understanding was that it was for the future and not the present. The fact that the supporters allowed my vision to play out is the biggest present and compliment i have ever received. It is because our institutions did and do not work and our people created by God as special beings live in hope that our leaders must lead! True leadership carries not only a vision but the people and they are ultimately only successful when they understand that they are there to serve the people they represent for a limited time. Chairing Kotoko in an executive capacity was always more than managing a football club it was recognising that as an institution it could only be moved if the spirit of the people was accompanied with their blessing and love … after all a manager who does not possess this can carry victory and not have the universal appeal or acceptance necessary for continuity especially in bad times. In order to get the team out of debt and to balance the books we not only had to introduce the concept of sports sponsorship at all levels but also fill the stadiums. It was my belief that in order to fill the stadiums and get people focused on the domestic game rather than the English Premier League there was a need to rebrand the Club retaining it’s traditional values in a modern global context and market outside of Kumasi more than in Kumasi. This way people would travel into Kumasi and be prepared to spend money on food, accommodation etc in the Garden City. A wealthier Kumasi could only benefit Kotoko. The intoxication that existed was borne out of our collective struggle. The establishment of previously untraversed communication tools ensured there was a level of transparency which was accepted not only at congress but when weekly and monthly management accounts were published! Now i had better stop. Kwabena you have managed to get me speak about Kotoko when i have always decided to rarely do so. I have always been of the belief that unless there is a significant crisis to keep silent, move on and let others take centre stage. Wow i did not know that those things written were remembered or had an impact. Now you have gotten me to go my blog to revisit many of the pieces i wrote over time! Kwabena we have so many choices and the individuals you have mentioned have become iconic brands for many people. In the last 30 days you will have witnessed the greatness of Serena at Wimbledon for the Grand Slam and for the Olympics, signs of re emergence of greatness by Tiger and the growth of Jo Wilfred. Marco is legend on a par with Pele and Maradona in many ways and Kotoko is back at the top. Kwabena we all have a role to play in life and when your calling comes grab it with integrity and passion so that when the next calling is extended to you in future to other things you are prepared and recognised! Have a great evening. (apologies for late reply… i was in a series of meetings)

Kwabena Osafo-kantanka:

“Kwabena you have laid me naked with your beautiful words which am not sure than am totally deserving but if my tenure carried any positivity for you and yours then my servitude was worth it”- The first extract.

“Now I had better stop. Kwabena you have manage to get me speak about Kotoko when I have decided to rarely do so. I have always been of the believe that unless there is a significant crises to keep silent, move on and let others take the centre stage”-Second extract!

“Kwabena we all have a role to play in life and when your calling comes grab it with integrity and passion so that when the next calling is extended to you in future to other things you are prepared and recognised!”-Third extract!

Fellow commentators, compatriots of the lovers of pearls of wisdom, brothers and sister of this august forum the above extract are just a few of the nuggets of golden thoughts from one of the most unblemished self-made entrepreneurs in our country, a fearless and impartial political commentator and a passionate and relentless advocator of true leadership, an unrivalled football administrator in our age and one of the gold-plated names in the historical anals of the footballing club of the indomitable warriors Kumasi Asante Kotoko!! Yet Mr. Herbert Mensah deems it fit to apologise to a peripheral nonentity like me!…Hmmm..Humility they say is not thinking less of yourself, but rather less about yourself!! Now brethren you understand why am in floods of tears! Why I have decided not wipe any of those streaming tears, but let those tears flow ceaslessly down my cheeks! Because each tear that drops on the ground contains the sum of my reverence and difference to this idolised fan of mine since I started to play gutter-to-gutter till my last stint with monday stars at the Alajo basic school complex park!! I can’t put my feelings now into words, because they are inadequate and fails me completely. I can’t ask for an autograph yet because my attainable hopes of seeing him I flesh and blood is still unfolding, but one thing I can do, will do, and is doing, is to ask for greater grace and good speed in prayers for all the endeavours of Mr. Herbet Mensah, and just ask the sovereign will of God and the greater good of providence to at least once in my miserable life, turn my GARGANTUAN virtual dream of meeting this icon in flesh and blood into a heart-stopping breathless reality!!!!