Why The Elephant Was Kicked Out

Okay…I think the NPP have wept for a little while and it’s now time to tell them some bitter truth. I am writting this as a Ghanaian who strongly believes in multi-party democracy.

First, a congratulations to the NDC is in order. They fought gallantly and they were more poised for power than the NPP. We can wish them well and pray for the President of Ghana to succeed. On a lighter note, I hope all the custodians of the public toilets have smoothly handed over all the necessary documents to the new regime. In fact all the toilet rolls must be well accounted for.

Second, the outcome of the election proves something a bit scary. That the youth of the nation are gradually losing faith in our democracy. The applause received by the Burkinabé coup leader during the inauguration of the President alone proves that the youth are now fancying the unthinkable. For those of us who saw a little of the “curfew” and soldier power days of the founder of the NDC never wish for such a time to repeat itself in our country. The early days of the so called revolution was scary and completely insane. They were days when women were openly lashed in their private areas with cheers and jeers from Ghanaians (never believe the Ghanaian is peaceful and loving, only provide them with the basis and your friends will just become your traitors).

It is now widely perceived and being aggressively perpetrated by the party hierarchy that we lost the election largely due to voter apathy. I beg to differ. Apathy in itself is outright rejection by the voters. They have to accept that they lost the election period!

A PRESIDENT FULL OF TENSION
In 2008, it was rumored that President Kuffour referred to Nana Akuffo Addo as a man “full of tensions” and should not be voted for. Personally, I don’t know how true this rumours were but I strongly disagreed then…I think the man was right about Nana Addo. Let me explain:

For Nana Addo to be President, the entire party structures and constitution was dismantled. I was present during the 3R convention at the Trade fair where some changes were made to the constitution to allow for the expansion of the electoral college. This was largely initiated by Nana Addo so he could ride on his popularity among the then many foot soldiers so as not to crumble under the financial might of Alan Kyeremanteng.

Even after winning as the flag bearer, he proceeded to victimize Kwabena Agyapong and Paul Afoko and eventually axed them from the party.

In 1998, one of the fiercest of internal campaigns was launched by Nana Akuffo Addo against the then incumbent flag bearer J. A Kuffour. It was vicious and to some extent ferocious when Nana called JAK a poor man who cannot raise enough funds to win a national elections. Nana Addo was then being supported by the Young Executive Forum which was founded by Alan Kyeremanteng. Come to think of it, Kwabena Agyapong was the campaign manager for Nana Addo and Alan was one of the main bankrollers!

After winning the election in 2000, JAK made Nana his minister of Justice first and when he was flawed by Tsatsu in the Fast Track court issue in court, he was immediately made minister of Foreign Affairs.

For a party which believed in loyalty, the masses stood by Nana and rejected the then perceived candidate of JAK…but can I tell you the hard truth that JAK never supported Alan?….He supported Papa Owusu-Ankomah!

In Nana’s presidency, most of the perceived JAK men were sidelined, to the extent that the late Anthony Akoto Osei spoke about it in the open. He surrounded himself with babies with deep throat. In the end, these boys looted the country and rendered the government ineffective. They became arrogant and boisterous.

THE AGYAPADEƐ GOVERNMENT
In 1979 when the uncle of Nana Addo, Paa Willie, broke away from the tradition to form his own party, the appointed general secretary of that party was Nana Addo!

During the runoff of 1979 elections, Paa Willie could’ve just joined forces with Victor Owusu to win the elections but it was rumored (this is collaborated by Ken Agyapong) that Paa Willie said “Asanteni bedi deɛ, akokɔ nfa”….to wit, for an Asante man to win, it should go to the cock!

The Paa Willie party was a family oriented party. The Kyebi caucus….not necessarily Akyem caucus run the show. Fast forward to 2016, immediately Nana won the elections, he overlooked political competence and surrounded himself with the same Kyebi squad. At a time when it was glaring that these people were failing, the man still kept faith with his nephew. They said the Agyapadeɛ document which was leaked is fake but the actions proved otherwise (discursions for another day).

You see, JAK proved to be a better President than Nana Addo. When JAK was leaving office, he left a winsome party. Nana Addo was leading the first round of the elections and needed less than 15,000 votes to win an outright one touch victory. In parliament, the difference of seats was less than 10….today, we trailed by over 2million votes and over a hundred seats….BIG DIFFERENCE!

POOR GOVERNANCE
The second term of the second NPP government is the poorest we have ever had surpassing the incompetence of JDM in 2016!

The only answer they could give to their incompetence was FREE SHS just like the NDC could only point to the Green Book in 2016. The failure of Nana Addo made the rejected JDM era looked like paradise and JDM himself as a saint.

Defeat was staring at the party in 2020. That election’s victory to the NPP was a victory with a bitter taste of defeat and the NDC, a defeat with a taste of victory. Even with this glaring and looming danger, the party did not seek to turn things around to savage their image!

IMPOSITION OF BAWUMIA
Dr. Bawumia is a fine gentleman. He could’ve been a better president than JDM but the timing was wrong!

The government of which he was an integral part of had flopped. He was a part of the blame. He could not exonerate himself from the economic mess his own government created and per his own economic philosophy, the exchange rate exposed them!

Scientifically, the party should’ve weaned itself from the government and select a neutral and winsome candidate. Alan was not that person. He was as well in government and would’ve received the same battering. Ken Agyapong could’ve caused a major upset even though many people believed he was not much of a presidential material, he could’ve cause JDM an upset!

Then the problem of selecting a candidate for the presidency was thé worst ever organized by the party. For the first time in our history, there was this childish open declarations for Bawumia from all corners….it took away the mystery of delegate and victimized some candidates. It was for this reason that Alan left the party. He could’ve been made to lose honorably. But he was openly rejected!!!

After forcefully imposing a candidate on the party and manipulating the masses to select Dr Bawumia, Nana Addo has eventually succeeded in breaking the party into pieces. By bringing Bawumia, the culture of hard work and loyalty to the party was destroyed. There was no genuine worker for the party anymore. All volunteers became stomach workers thus leading us to the abyss we find ourselves in now.

NEGLECT OF FOOT SOLDIERS
Politics is about consolidation. Your ability to mobilize and sustain your base is crucial to your winning and maintaining power. Right after winning the 2016 elections, the party quickly forgot their foot soldiers.

The artisans within the party were overlooked for the petty little jobs that could’ve kept them loyal to the party.

Our contractors were overlooked and NDC contractors rather sub-contracted contracts to our own contractors.

The boys who toiled for the party without certificates were asked to produce certificates to be supported with paltry sums to embark on productive businesses.

UNSCIENTIFIC SELECTION OF MPs
In 2000 elections. The NPP in Berekum took a politically scientific decision that wrestled the seat from the then J.H. Owusu Acheampong.

The party analyzed their performance in the constituency and were able to come up with a clear cut strategy by selecting Nkrabeah Effah Dartey, from Jinijini. They saw from hard data that the party always wins in the main metropolis but when the votes from the villages comes, they lose. So they chose a candidate unopposed from the second biggest town in the constituency and it worked…Berekum became a safe seat afterwards until the recent elections!

Primaries is not always the right way to go in some constituencies. The party must work harder on the ground to identify popular individuals and allow them to contest for us. Dominic Nitiwul is an example of such strategy that won us the seat.

We cannot let people with money who are not known in the constituencies to win the primaries and cost us the seats!!!

VICTIMIZATION OF SPIRITUAL FIGURES
Rev. Owusu Bempah put his ministry on the line when he stuck his neck out for the party. I don’t know what he did to the party to warrant his arrest and neglect by the government in his time of distress….His arrest could’ve been ignored and cautioned in-house.

The party ended up making an enemy of a friend. We downplayed his influence and it caused us dearly.

We could’ve influence faith workers to calm the hearts of Ghanaians but we rather sidelined some of them who stuck their ne is out for us. We rather put together a team of elite preachers to build a National Cathedral. I don’t know if the rumors of $20,000 meeting allowance to these people was true but if it was, then a great disservice has been done to this nation by these preachers….I SUPPORT THE INVESTIGATION!

POOR COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
The economy was bad, no two ways about that. We could’ve humbly admitted to the Ghanaians of this fact, apologize and then explain the global economic conditions better to the masses. We rather went about touting non-existent achievements.

We put forth arrogant communicators. Most of them clueless and played massively into the hands of the NDC.

We lacked a comprehensive communication strategy to reach the youth who are losing faith in our tradition.

WHAT NEXT?
We have time to redeem our image.
Let’s call all party faithfuls together and strategize.

Well, the rest will be revealed behind closed doors if I am invited to attend any strategic meeting…..