Cruising To Victory In 2016

Every political party is formed with the sole purpose of winning political power to exert executive control over the electorate. However, this should not be seen in the Machiavellian sense where power is an end in itself and not a means to an end. In the political history of Ghana, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) best illustrates parties that seek political power in the scenarios above. Whereas the NPP sees power as a means to advancing the development of the populace and improving on their lots, the NDC sees power as an end in itself.

At best, when the NDC uses power as a means to an end, it ultimately results in deteriorating the living standards of the masses and end up compounding their predicaments.

It is sad that Ghanaians are gullible to the chicaneries of the NDC and have given them the mandate to rule more than any other political party since independence whether by fair or foul means. Any party that sees political power as an end in itself can traverse any length to secure it. We should never be surprised therefore that a political party will have a propaganda outfit or secretariat not intended to propagate their good works but to intentionally throw untruths at the electorate, discredit political opposition etcetera all aimed at making the gullible majority to give them their votes to lord it over them.

The 2016 elections is fast approaching an I'm convinced that the NPP haven spent 8 years in opposition by the time we go to the polls in 2016 is all poised for a landslide victory that will be 'unriggable' (difficult to rig). The first indication of this was the victory of Honourable Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo in the just ended presidential primaries of the party. It wasn't just the victory of Nana Addo that showed NPP's preparedness for victory but the landslide with which he won and the immediate pledges of support from other aspirants, notably from his keenest competitor over the years, Mr. Alan Kyeremanten. The gentle jack of Ghanaian politics, President John Agyekum Kufour has been more than a father in the run-up to the primaries and immediately pledged his unflinching support of Nana Addo to wrestle power from incompetent President Mahama and the NDC in 2016.

The unanimous endorsement of the erudite Dr. Bawumia as running mate to Nana Addo although was coming, is one of the many steps the NPP has taken so far which are indicative of our preparedness for victory in 2016. Dr. Bawumia has all of a sudden become a household name in Ghana. Many admire him for his intelligence, humility, philanthropy and respect for the down-trodden. The situation we are in as a country today requires someone with the qualities of Dr. Bawumia to restore fiscal discipline and bring the economy back on track.

We require Nana Addo as president to effectively fight the menace of corruption, youth unemployment (sadly, yours truly is a victim), and to bring back dignity to the presidency. Above all things, president Akufo Addo would among other things fix the broken infrastructural gaps, implement his visionary free S.H.S, revive the NHIS, Metro Mass Transit, School Feeding Programme and industrialize Ghana within a short time.

There are two remaining bridges the NPP will have to cross to be fully prepared for the elections in 2016. That haven been said, it is worthy of note that the NPP remains the only political party in Ghana that completed over 90% of its internal elections. As I indicated, the two remaining bridges are 1. The appointment of the Campaign Manager (CM) of Nana Addo and 2. The election of parliamentary candidates.

My take on the first bridge is that all the alleged personalities interested in becoming the campaign manager are decent, industrious and capable. Anyone of them will make a fine CM. However, my personal favourite is Honourable Daniel Botwe for the simple reason that I believe he is a peacemaker, very diplomatic, a workaholic, a strategist and very blessed with communication skills capable of endearing the NPP to Ghanaians. Mr. Stephen Ntim is my second bet.

The last major bridge the NPP must cross is the election of parliamentary candidates for all the 275 constituencies. I believe this is where a lot of attention and research must be paid to. There are so many constituencies with peculiar problems that the party leadership at the regional and national levels must do something about these differences. I must say that the NPP refuse to win some constituencies and willingly allow the NDC to usurp what should have been theirs. My humble plea to interested aspirants and delegates is that they should do away with the fictitious Nana and Alan camps. Whoever stands the chance of winning any constituency should be voted for devoid of his or her stance in the just ended presidential primaries.

The party must enforce the guidelines that will govern the conduct of the elections. If that is not done, some candidates will be arming our opponents in the NDC for ammunitions to use against us. For the constituencies that I know are in safe hands such as Bunkpurugu, Walewale, Yagaba-Kubori, Kpandai, Bimbilla and Yendi in the northern region, the imcumbent MPs should go unopposed to save resource although I know it may sound a little undemocratic.

Interested aspirants in these constituencies should be spoken to and made to declare their support for the incumbents. Any change may spell doom for us in these constituencies come 2016. I must also acknowledge that the good works of these MPs will speak for them even if there are people willing to contest them. The Yunyoo and Nalerigu constituencies can easily be won if the right persons are elected as parliamentary candidates and resourced. I'm limiting my analysis to constituencies of the northern region because that is where I come from and have knowledge about.

I know that Gusheigu, Karaga, Chereponi, Mion, Tolon, Nantong, Wulensi and Saboba constituencies can also be won by the NPP in 2016 if they are well resourced and backed with the right elected parliamentary candidates. All these constituencies have their own dynamics and I call on the Research Officers to go into them and find out why we lost them.

In the final analysis, I'm well convinced that the NPP can win half of the seats in northern region come 2016 with the pragmatism of the brave and selfless regional chairman, Mr. Daniel Bugri Naabu at his usual best. The path is clear, let us match to victory in 2016 as a united front.

If the NPP remain focused and united as it is today, Ghanaians will have no other option but to entrust us with their mandate to salvage the economy which is in a mess. Ghanaians find it difficult to understand what (mis)led them into voting for this crassly incompetent government if at all, our mandate was not stolen. Ghanaians have come to understand that post independent born presidents could just be as worse as any Stone Age born. We have come to understand the difference between talking and doing. We will love and cherish a 100 years old president who is wrinkled and ugly but is capable of fighting corruption, creating jobs, making health and education affordable, improving on agriculture and industry etc to a 40 years president who loves to talk, promise, loot, steal and weakens the fundamentals of the economy.

I dedicate this article to Mr. Salam Mustapha to congratulate him on his appointment as National Deputy Youth Organizer of NPP. This also goes out to all the Patriots in Nalerigu and Walewale especially Simon Ali Jarana, the constituency secretary of Walewale constituency, Seidu Fiter, Akbar Khomeini, Alhassan Anamzoya (Savelugu) Abdul-Rahman Abubakar and Abdul-Raheem Abdul Jamal Song (Langbinsi), Barbaric and Sappro (Nalerigu), Abubakari Shani Bawumia (Tamale), Iddrisu Deyoung (Kumasi and Gushegu) and my little brother, Abdulai Jabaru (Nalerigu). To all, I say let's keep the momentum if we can't increase it.

Simon Suayam
Mobile: 0207854685