The masters of con are back!

I have been around for quite some time and have lived through different political dispensations in our dear country Ghana. I have seen J.J. Rawlings –pre NDC and post NDC. I have also seen the NPP and I do have quite an extensive knowledge of its antecedents. I will admit that I am a political 'animal' and so I make it my business to study these things.

The usual 'analysts' and 'experts' have already explained why the last election went the way it did, and that's fine. Diverse opinions are always welcome in a democracy and so I always like to look at things in a much unconventional way.

I seriously do not believe that we can truly and accurately identify all the reasons for the NPP's loss even before the next elections in 2012, but we can try, at least.

The one thing that contributed to the NPP's loss was the complete breakdown of information dissemination. How is it possible that the ruling party's policy decisions were being defended by Kwaku Baako and co. These were not party members, neither were they government officials.

The NPP went through, at least, four information ministers and still could not get it right. If there is one thing they would have to learn form the NDC, then that, without a doubt is the art of propaganda and con. One can just take a look at the number of NDC people who were on radio on a daily basis to 'bash' the government. As a ruling government your job is to pre-empt your opponent. You don't wait till after the fact. How many times did we not hear these guys calling onto radio shows to refute or rebuff an allegation? In politics the goal is to not leave any doubts lingering on the minds of the voting public. And I will repeat what I said earlier: you become proactive and not reactive.

The NDC are masters of this and they used it to their advantage and why not? The other factor is how the NDC, and particularly Rawlings, is able to 'manipulate events to put a spin on them to score 'cheap' political points. Well, after December 28, 2008 we will have to ask whether those 'con acts' were cheap after all.

Remember Rawlings going to Sunyani or somewhere in the Brong Ahafo region and going down on his knees to, seemingly, beg the people of the area to vote for a particular man for MP? (This was years ago when he was still in office) Well I believe you do remember the consequences that innocent Felix Odartey Wellington suffered when he called it exactly what it was- a con.
With Elvis Ankrah, Fiifi Kwetey and others having an open field to 'fire' no wonder they succeeded in turning things around.

The average Ghanaian would admit that the socio-politico environment under the NPP was way better than under the NDC. Even the NDC would admit to that!!! So how do we explain the last election results? Some are ready to stick the 'arrogant' tag on the NPP or at least some of its members. Yes if you have individuals like Asabee(Asamoah-Boateng), that might not be too far from the truth but can anybody honestly tell me whether Kennedy Agyapong is more arrogant than Tony Aidoo? Or whether Asabee's incontinence surpasses that of Ekwow Spio Garbrah.

As far as I am concerned the charge of one being arrogant or not is neither here nor there. The true reasons will be revealed with time but for now let me just go back to the original issue of 'con acts or conning'. Two recent incidents come to mind: First, the widely reported frustration of J.J. Rawlings at Prez. Atta Mills and second, the out-of-the-blue announcement of the vice-president's decision not to attend the inauguration of the US president-elect. You may not agree with and that's fine, but do hear me out.

Ghanaians wake up one morning to the news that one Victor Smith has carried out a 'commando' operation at the Castle and suddenly there is déjà vu all around the country.
And, by the way, how did he, (Victor Smith), an ordinary civilian with no presidential authority, manage to commandeer soldiers to the Castle? Or did he have the blessings of Atta Mills? Or was it Rawlings?

This is happening in Atta Mills' Ghana and it cannot be good for them. This would also bring back this age-old question of 'can Atta Mills be his own man?' The NDC needs to put that to rest and fast and so what do they decide to do? In comes Rawlings to the rescue.

Rawlings decides to hold a meeting of a sort with some NDC folks and there he makes known to them his frustration with Prez Atta Mills so far. When I read this on the web, I, unlike many Ghanaians, did not think it was time to tell Rawlings to back off or anything like that. I knew straight away that something was up. Vintage Rawlings and the NDC!!!

Now consider this dear reader: how many meetings has Rawlings had with NDC guys since 2000? And how many times did minutes from such meetings become 'public property' immediately after the meetings?

My conclusion then was that to the extent that they had gone out of their way to let the people know what transpired at the meeting, the purpose could be one thing and one thing only. Create a scenario to the people of Ghana to indicate that Prez Atta Mills can actually go against the wishes of Rawlings, and even to the extent that Rawlings is so frustrated that he is complaining about it. What does that do for Atta Mills? I bet you see the point now.

Yes exactly! That was my analysis but don't just take my word for it. This was to be later confirmed by an NDC official on Joy FM. This NDC official went on-air (Joy FM) and in not so many words said that for Rawlings to complain is proof that Atta Mills is his own man. Wow!!!! Are we not surprised!!!

It will definitely take more than 'effusions' from Rawlings to convince the good people of Ghana that Atta Mills does have a set of 'balls between his thighs'-apologies to the late P.A.V. Ansah. Will the con ever end?

The second incident came days later.
The office of the vice-president announced that he(the vice-president) would not be attending the inauguration of Barack Obama in the U.S. The report had the following implications buried within, carefully and craftily coined to sell the presumed gullible Ghanaian populace: That the vice-president had been invited in the first place, and that they suddenly realized that Atta Mills could not do without the vice-president for a few days (in spite of the Transition Team put in place by the President).

Do the people in the NDC really think that they can take us all for a ride?

When did they receive any invitation to the inauguration (that is if they ever did) and when did they announce such invitation to the people of Ghana?

If there was no such announcement, then why did they find it necessary to tell us that he, the vice president, was not going after all? You can only announce such as a consequence to an earlier announcement. There was no initial announcement about a trip so how could there be an announcement about the cancellation of a trip.

I don't expect everybody to follow the logic but if you know the NDC and Rawlings like I do, you would understand exactly what this is about. A con job! Cheap politics!!

The truth of the matter is that the NDC made a 'policy decision' to count the number of trips made by the immediate past president and may even be still counting. So somebody within their ranks raised the issue that with Atta Mills' trip to Nigeria, the people have already started the count and to add another trip within this transition period could spark 'noises' from the people, which noises they could do without. This is the real reason and so why don't the 'saints' in the NDC tell the people the truth?

But I am not even faulting them for that either. They have accused the previous government of lack of transparency but I guess this is TRANSPARENCY the NDC way!!

You cannot repeat what you have accused another of. Period!!!!!

Credit: Yaw Opare-Asamoah [[email protected]]