For The NDC To Stay Relevant And Real

A quick one from the Youth Imam...

1. The NDC must rebrand and reorient itself; the party must not only consider politics as a game of the smart but as a private business where profit is essential to its sustenance.

2. The NDC must consciously switch to the character of the NPP as it stands now. The party should see everything wrong which the NPP see as wrong and right which the NPP see as such. After all, in the final analysis the everyday Ghanaian will still see and describe the two political parties as the twin-evils (ie the same people).

3. The NDC should leave and work with the very system the NPP has set up, so that if they set up a recruitment system (employment opportunities) to be discriminatory, partisan, tribalistic, undemocratic, then let it be like that. If they gave opportunities to the 50% of the populace (NPP members) let’s also give the remaining 50% (NDC members) same opportunities when the party ultimately wins power, in order for the system to gain equilibrium and perfectly balanced.

4. The NDC needn’t care so much about the country, after all the NPP see themselves as the owners of Ghana. If they want to grind Ghana to a halt, please let’s help them grind it to a halt so that we can all start from zero. This thing that one party should be nationalistic while another is pampered to always do the wrong things won’t help the system to maintain it’s balance. To get balance, let’s get a negative and another negative to play in the middle of two numbers to give us the positive outcome. NB: the rule of Mathematics applied.

5. The NDC should cease to or reduce the provision of public goods while they are in government and also concentrate on direct human development even if it means to also borrow for consumption instead of using same for capital expenditure, so be it. The NDC members are tired of always pointing to roads, hospitals, schools, while walking in empty stomachs and waiting to be given a ride by an NPP friend and on top of it, waiting to be told how stupid you (the NDC member) looks. Let’s be like them if that will give us results. Nobody eats conscience and integrity anymore, we also want the tangibles.

6. The NDC must not be afraid of criticisms and it must be ready to also play with the 4 cardinal principles the NPP always play with:

-DEFEND first and if it doesn’t work,

-JUSTIFY second and if it doesn’t work,

-EQUALIZE third and if it doesn’t work then we,

-ATTACK, INTIMIDATE, COERCE and if need be, we EXILE them.

7. If it pays to be lawless, intolerant, vindictive and cunning, I’m all for it. After all, the Ghanaian is always ready to reward what they define as RESULTS and not EFFORTS. If we tolerate dissent and give the media the freedom to operate as a working system will do, the same media will work to our detriment, whitewash the vindictive one and get him to look good for election. He comes back as an elected dictator to hunt them in end, but hey! that is what they subscribed to. If they want us to do business and not nation-building, let’s do business then.

8. Let’s take note that even if the NDC uses 20 years to restore the system back to normal and working with all institutional guarantees, it will take a self-seeking leader of the NPP to use just two years to collapse what has been built in order to take personal control. This would have rendered a two decades efforts and results useless.

9. The NDC boys must also chop and not always working like bulls. We need to work smart now and not the usual hard work.

10. The party must be reminded that it is also made up of Ghanaians and not foreigners. So, if we give opportunities to our members and the NPP points that out, let’s also point to them that our members are also Ghanaians and are equally qualified. This is what will make the party attractive. After all this is their usual response to justify their family and friends agenda.

10. Finally, this issue of socialist ideology and social democracy should be redefined within the context of practicality. Is it the case that social democracy is akin to poverty, modesty and submissiveness? If that were the case, then I will recommend that we also join the crony capitalists, because nobody is ready to be poor and always submissive by the mere fact of some ideological persuasions. Ironically, when the NDC finally wins, some in leadership will wear socialists caps while assuming the capitalist taste, but the grassroots are always encouraged to remain the poor socialist masses.

I am still a Nationalist but this time around, I am a student of Niccolo Machiavelli. Shalom!

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese

(The Youth Imam)