ON MY HUMBLE MIND: N.P.P. LET'S TRUST ANOTHER TO ENSURE 2016 ELECTORAL SUCCESS

Dear Editor, for you kind publication.
ON MY HUMBLE MIND: N.P.P. LET'S TRUST ONE ANOTHER TO ENSURE 2016 ELECTORAL SUCCESS.

'A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other.'

- Simon Sinek
The 2016 elections would go into the annals of Ghana's election history as the most crucial.

The confession of the Deputy Electoral Commissioner in charge of operations, Mr. Amadu Sulley, to the effect that the EC messed up the conduct of the 2012 elections "as a result of system failure and inept display by some of its staff during the election", is quite intriguing but not unexpected.

The EC Chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan, had himself while testifying at the Supreme Court during the election petition hearing admitted to many infractions and "errors" during the conduct of the 2012 elections.

It may be recalled that the EC Chair actually issued a statement to prosecute officials of the Commission whose conduct fell short of their mandate and expectations required.

The Deputy Chairman in charge of operations at the EC has tacitly again admitted and confirmed our party's position that the conduct of the 2012 elections were characterized by:

"various degrees of unpardonable irregularities, including failure to comply with basic operational instructions, technical and logistical challenges."

These revelations among many electoral malpractices during the 2012 elections by the EC notwithstanding, the New Patriotic Party cannot depend on any meaningful corrective measures to ensure that the 2016 elections would not be fraught with similar and/or more sophisticated clandestine mode of system "error" operations deliberately orchestrated to deny us the 2016 election success.

Many members of our party are not so convinced that despite the EC' s own acquiescence to these grave electoral malpractices, the electoral processes and procedural ineptitude would be corrected.

We must be more visible in demanding for and adopting pragmatic measures to curtail the reoccurrence of the conditions precedent that occasioned our party's inability to win the 2012 elections.

There are many innovative approaches and research methodologies that can be used to ensure that another wool is not pulled over our eyes.

The success at the 2016 elections demands that we must not only work together but we must truly trust ourselves and avoid being antagonistic towards each other.

One of the most important huddles we should overcome is in our ability to trust each other. We must all work together in harmony and in trust devoid of acrimony in order to have an excellent team for the huge task ahead in 2016.

"If we doubted our fears instead of doubting our dreams, imagine how much in life we'd accomplish."

- Joel Brown
With all the suspicions and mistrust within our ranks, coupled with press statements and opinions expressed about ourselves in the full glare of the public and the dragging of our leaders into disrepute, we are all contributing to increase the already challenging 2016 victory project.

We may have to be less sure of the things we fear amongst ourselves and believe and work towards trusting each other. We should be less belligerent towards ourselves and thereby garner have enough capacity and resources required to win the 2016 elections.

Our fears, our suspicions, our mistrust only go to blur our vision and dreams. All these are unseen scenarios but we seem to put too much credence on the first three to the neglect of the later two.

As a human institution, we may definitely once in a while harbour some fears and suspicions especially taking into cognisance the political behaviour patterns of some members of our party.

However, we should at all times acknowledge and believe more in our dreams than giving so much credence to our fears and suspicions of ourselves.

As a political party, our main objective is to win the 2016 presidential election as well as majority of seats in parliament.

Our vision is clearly defined programmes capable of helping to salvage the economic downturn and remove the despondency being perpetuated on the vast majority of Ghanaians by the President Mahama's administration.

Our dream is to govern this country with excellent and well and clearly thought out agenda that can ensure a prosperous, peaceful and developed Ghana, but we must win the 2016 elections before these can manifest.

We must be reticent about our own and not allow members of our own party to denigrate each other. Let's all seek the welfare of each other and our party.

Thank you.
Fred Kwaku Amankwah -Sarfo.
(054 433 1324 / 024 425 5525)