Is NPP A Group Of Individuals And A Party "Buried In Thought"?

Political discourse in Ghana seems to focus on the Opposition than the Government for that matter the people. Whereas that must not be the case, the truth is NPP as an Opposition had fitted itself into that limelight, and do almost everything necessarily to occupy and make it a position of distraction than contribution. The individualistic party posturing characterizing our national politics had devolved into the NPP itself, as reflected in the pervasive individualism rocking and cracking the current leadership hierarchies.

Just as the case in the national politics, the needed cooperation is conspicuously nonexistent because each member is buried in his own thoughts, which only keep fueling their crisis to the detriment of the whole. Though understandably undesirable and unpreferable politically, yet to be in Opposition is to be in an orderly and not a chaotic state. Anything other than this is baffling. That is why the continuous current chaotic state of NPP is extremely difficult to appreciate. Unless they are seen as a group of people buried in thoughts that extols individualism in lieu of cooperation just as the party itself does in national politics.

It will be naive to, even assume that NPP is ignorant of the political climate of Ghana. Yet as knowledgeable as they are about it, they are encapsulated in their own self-created thoughts degenerating into the self-created and fanned conflicts. These make-beliefs mostly clouds their judgement. As such, they hardly engage in any critical evaluative measure to appeal to the people outside their catchment areas. Given that every party has its strongholds that they can count on during election, it takes more than campaigning to appeal to that group of peoole called the floating voters. Every party can campaign. But it seems not every party can appeal to the people apart from their faithfuls.

For instance, NPP's intransigent posture in pushing for the call to changing the Voters Register even if done cannot be a subsitute to appealing to the people apart from their stalwarts. Likewise, it will not create disaffection for the parties with contrary views. Besides, per the observation of and from the two days EC Forum organized in Alisah Hotel, powered by the five-member committee to discuss the claims of NPP by all stakeholders, the emerging consensus points towards edition to cleansing the Register of the generic challenges than replacing them from scratch.

Generic challenges, in the sense that it is impossible to have a Voter Register absolved of all possible infiltrating challenges, which are themselves been fostered by these very parties. In that regard, the NPP's deflated case can best be reduced to merely pointing out the generic challenges inherent in Voter Register compilation, and never building up a case of political contrivance, a thought they are buried in and imposing on Ghanaians. It is therefore conspicuous that since NPP's claim is generic and not a contrivance by any party, editing to cleansing the Register is the best option to make it new.

Of course, the newness of the Voter Register via editing is not what NPP wanted. They wanted total replacement from scratch. Meanwhile doing so in the absence of the necessary technology and logistics to forestalling the very generic challenges that bothers on political honesty than technical inefficiencies of the Electoral Commission will be more of a merry-go-round voyage, tantamount to wasting time and resources than a solution. So technically, econimically and politically, it is more prudent to edit than replace the Voters Registration from scratch. In addition it smacks off double standard to be constantly accusing the Government of profligacy, whilst urging same in the name of preventing potential unrest as if the editing is without cost. Just as peace is better than unrest in all situations so is editing better than replacement from scratch in this context.

Accordingly, this intransigent insistence of NPP on the replacement of old Voter Register from scratch to confer that newness in lieu of editing to achieving same purpose is a reflection of the fact that these are people "buried in thought" and for that matter insulated and isolated from the national interest. It will interest them to be reminded of an observation made by the British Historian, A.J.P Taylor about Napoleon, that, he learned from the mistakes of the past to make new ones. In the same vein whoever writing the political history of NPP that will span the democratic dispensation of Ghana must similarly and definitely highlights how NPP learns from the mistakes of the past just to make new ones in its quest for power, resulting into more defeats than victory. This is not unimaginable in 2016. Thanks to being buried in, and "fighting" the thought of EC and others are against me than focusing on working out solutions to appealing to floating voters.

This tendency of being buried in thought is not only characteristic of the ignorant, but also of the knowledgeable as well, which insulates and isolates them from reality. The reality is that the political machinery of a nation ought to work in cooperation to better the lives of the citizenry. It is in that collaborative substratum that the incompetence of a ruling party becomes visible to the people, which underpins their collective disposition for change of government in any election.

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