The battle lines are drawn and the fight for a flagbearer to lead the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the 2028 elections has been fierce. It is feared that the fight is too fierce for the unity of the NPP. Yet some think that it is a normal fight. They say it in Akan “Ɛnnyɛ deɛ akokɔ baatan nhunuu bi da ne awomawuo” to wit “high child mortality rate is nothing new to the hen that shares compound with the hawk”. However, one does not need a doctorate degree in political science to tell that all is not well with the elephant family.
The NPP lost power long before the December 2024 Elections. If the managers of the party did not know this then it is a pity. It would look like the party was trapped in the proverbial betwixt heaven and hell dilemma. Heaven it would not get and hell was lost to it. The NPP appeared to have lost link with the Presidency it sponsored to win power and at the same time had lost the link with its grassroots. This is a serious communication defect which is still crying for attention and resolution. It must be told, however, that this communication weakness is not a new phenomenon.
In a foreword written for Peter T. Omari’s book, “Kwame Nkrumah, The Anatomy of An African Dictatorship”, Justice Nii Amaa Ollennu, the Honourable Justice of the Court of Appeal, suggested that the failure of the then opposition (now NPP) to speak the language of the people contributed in no small measure to Nkrumah’s popularity. He wrote, “…..the failure of his (ie Nkrumah’s) opponents to speak the language of the people and their consequent inability to awaken the masses to the realisation of the gradual but consistent enslavement and the general apathy of all the people of Ghana, are condemned in no uncertain terms”.
In the same book, the author, Peter T. Omari wrote on pages 28 and 29, “But largely, through the attitude they displayed towards the ‘uneducated’ classes, the educated classes of the Gold Coast alienated and continued to alienate themselves from the mass of the people and lost the political initiative to Nkrumah and his ‘veranda boys.’’
These show that the communication department of the party is rather weak. The other aspects of the communication flop are the failure of the NPP to talk about their achievements and to explain their failures or challenges to the people. As for the unavailability of party executives to people for discussions, the least we talked about it the better.
It is true that your priorities reflect your character. After losing the 2024 elections, when the NDC government was bent on carrying out their threats of diluting the ‘packed’ judiciary and strategically reshaping the security forces, the NPP went to bed. Their priority was going on a ‘Thank You Tour’.
A few months after losing power the party was said to be broke. When responding to a question posed by Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi those days, Mr. Victor Owusu of the Popular Front Party (PFP) stated: ‘’We are not rich. We are only resourceful”. Where the resourcefulness of the party, Mr. Victor Owusu was proud of?
The Research Department of the party if any should be positioned to carry out economic and other strategic research activities to inform the government of the path of progress and concerns raised by people. It does not matter whether government is formed by their own party or when they are in opposition.
It will do the elders of the party a lot of good if they would wake up to these realities and understand that it is a strong party that can produce a good flag bearer and not the other way around. They may decide to go into an enclave and do a SWOT analysis on the Professor Mc Ocquaye’s Report. They can then build a formidable party before thinking of choosing a flagbearer.
By Sylvester Asare