The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been on a journey this year to rebrand for Election 2024.
The essence of the exercise is to present winnable candidates to the electorate to help the party to ‘break the eight’.
This endeavour spearheaded by the leadership of the party led by its National Chairman, Stephen Ayesu Ntim and assisted by General Secretary, Justin Frimpong Kodua has been one of the most difficult exercises in the history of the party.
Many had predicted an implosion after the presidential primary, but the doomsday prophets have been put to shame, albeit with some defections led by Alan Kyerematen and his renegades who have formed the Butterfly Movement.
Buoyed by some media houses and commentators, Alan and his group seem to be gaining some traction with his health walk, but the emergence of this force would be like a storm in a tea cup.
This movement, after 2024, would be like what the Ewes would call “agobo dzo”, in other words, fire set by the corn husk; it does not last. It is ephemeral.
That would be the fate of the Butterfly Movement sooner than later. At best Alan would be the Cornerstone Football Club of our time, be spoilers instead of winners.
The venom with which presently Alan speaks suggests his objective “put sand in the gari” of the NPP’s agenda of ‘breaking the eight’.
The prediction of doom for the NPP did not end with the Special Delegates Conference on August 26, but the enemies of the party intensified their vile propaganda against the Elephant Family for its November 4 Congress. Having failed in their negative wish for the party, they now turned their attention to the primaries in so-called “orphan constituencies” that turned out to be hugely successful last Saturday.
Again, when their expectations of violence did not materialise, the journalists and commentators turned attention to the payment of “T&T” to the delegates as inducement just to discredit the highly successful primaries.
It is sad that the extremely politically polarised society has reduced our national discourse to near emptiness where so-called university Dons and analysts foist their jaundiced opinions on the people.
By so doing they demean the delegates to the extent that they conclude that these party supporters sell their conscience for pittance. Our democracy ought to eliminate money bags from its activities, but the commentators bemoan the problem without providing solutions.
In every election on earth, including those that are held on campuses before the very eyes of university lecturers, there are some forms of incentives that are offered to the voters.
Some proponents have suggested on the national level, state funding of political parties but on a scale of priority, do we prefer to fund political parties or use the money to provide amenities such as roads, hospitals and schools?
We know that the opposition to the NPP’s mantra of ‘breaking the eight’ would not end now. A major conspiracy from opponents of the NPP including the NDC, some media houses, journalists, religious leaders, commentators, academia and civil society awaits it during the primaries to elect parliamentary candidates in constituencies where the party has sitting MPs.