The Writer
Looking at the electoral records of Ghana in the 4th Republic, the two major political parties, namely the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have dominated the political landscape. That is to say that political power has alternated between the two political parties since the inauguration of the fourth republic in 1992 to date.
For the eight presidential elections held in Ghana in the fourth republic, the NDC and the NPP have been handing over power to one another. Mr. Jerry John Rawlings of blessed memory won power for the NDC in the 1992 and 1996 elections. He handed over power to former president Kufuor of the NPP in 2001.
Former President Kufuor retained power for the NPP in the 2004 elections and handed it over to NDC’s Professor Evans Fiifi Atta Mills of blessed memory in 2009. The NDC led by Mr. John Dramani Mahama won power again in 2012 and lost it to President Nana Akufo-Addo of the NPP in the 2016 elections. President Akufo-Addo sustained it in the 2020 elections and will surely hand it over in 2025 because he has served two terms and hence, he is not qualified per the laws of Ghana to go for the third term.
Who will be the next president of Ghana after Nana Akufo-Addo? Will President Akufo-Addo be handing over power to another NPP candidate or an NDC person? Your guess will be as good as mine? The NPP is already out with a slogan dubbed, ‘Breaking the Eight (8)’ which means that they are poised to retain power in 2025. If they succeed, it will be historic in the fourth republic.
That is, NPP will become the first political party to have won power beyond the two consecutive terms that have almost become a convention in the fourth republic. To admit, that is not going to be an easy task at all because the NDC is also marshaling all efforts to snatch power from the NPP to clutch itself off the hassles and bustles of being in opposition. The NPP was close to making such a history in the 2008 elections.
From the look of things, the 2024 election will be similar to that of the 2008 elections in all spheres. The NDC will want to work extra hard to wrestle power from the NPP as they did in 2008 and the NPP is ever ready to do what they could not do in 2008, which is to set a record as the first political party in the fourth republic to govern Ghana beyond the consecutive two terms that have almost become a convention.
In their quest for power, it is becoming abundantly clear that the NDC is employing the same strategies it employed to topple the NPP in the 2008 elections.
The President Kufuor administration which ruled Ghana from 2001 to 2009 is noted to have rolled out lots of social intervention policies that brought a lot of relief to the Ghanaian people. As typical of every national policy, the policies came with teething problems and the NDC capitalised on them to make naught of all these novel poverty-alleviating and life-cushioning policies.
The NDC also made good use of the astronomical increase in transport fares, and prices of goods and services that were brought about by the exorbitant increase in prices of crude oil from about 50 dollars a barrel to about 140 dollars a barrel in the world market.
They hammered on the hardship that came with it as if it were a deliberate attempt by the Kufuor administration to create such hardship. The NDC made Ghanaians believe that the policies were poorly implemented, and they were the best people to solve all the problems associated with the implementation of the policies as well as reduce the prices of goods and services in the country.
They labeled former president Kufuor as being insensitive to the plight of Ghanaians and undertaking projects they viewed as unnecessary, and did not address the immediate challenges of Ghanaians.
The NDC labeled Kufuor projects like the construction of the Jubilee House, purchase of presidential jets, construction of new sports stadia in Tamale, and the rehabilitation of the two traditional stadia, one at Kumasi and the other at Accra as unnecessary, and do not meet the needs of Ghanaians at that time.
The NDC criticised Former president Kufuor for wasting the tax payer’s money on fruitless international travels. Almost every state institution in the country was verbally attacked and ridiculed by the NDC. The courts of Ghana were described by the NDC as ‘Kangaroo Courts’ meaning that they were under the whims and caprices of the former president Kufuor at that time.
The NDC is at its best again. The Nana Addo/Bawumia government which is working hard to bring relief to the Ghanaian people is not spared the negative vituperation and attacks by the NDC.
As they did in 2008, the NDC is making good use of the global economic crisis that has not spared Ghana and is largely a result of the outbreak of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war and making capital gains out of it. They are everywhere promising to be the better implementers of the Free SHS policy and other social intervention policies introduced by the Nana Addo/Bawumia government.
They have charged their ‘babies with sharp teeth’ to launch verbal attacks on every state institution that is genuinely doing its work and refused to fall for their whims and caprices. Day in and day out, the NDC attempts to smear the Nana Addo/Bawumia government with corruption but all their attempts become fruitless.
Ghanaians should beware of their political gymnastics and tricks. It was the same strategy the NDC used in ousting the NPP from the government in the 2008 elections and drove Ghana into a ditch. Unluckily, when the NDC wins the 2024 elections, they cannot ameliorate the suffering of the Ghanaians. They simply want power for the sake of it, and not to better the lives of the ordinary Ghanaian.
By Iddi Adam Osman, Sangayiri, Larabanga