NPP: Time To Try New Things Towards 2016 Elections

Akufo Addo remains the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) best bet for the 2016 election. The call on the 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party to contest the flagbearership of the party and the 2016 election on its ticket as the presidential candidate is a genuine and the most sincere political strategy for the NPP towards 2016.

There is no doubt that President John Dramani Mahama is unable to deliver his electoral promises and he has kept the development of this country in first gear ever since he ascended the seat of government.

The NPP stands the greatest chance of winning the next elections with Akufo Addo as its presidential candidate and it is time to do new things.

There is no regime since Ghana's independence that has received such huge tax revenue, revenues from commodities such as oil, gold, cocoa and other non-traditional commodities plus massive external loans as the President John Mahama's administration. However, corruption, nepotism and outright lack of foresight have become the norm in Ghana now. It is obvious that many Ghanaians are looking for a president who has the temerity of purpose to take us out of the quagmire of huge increases in utility tariffs, fuel prices, poor infrastructural development, massive labor agitations, and presidential deceptions as well as total despondency. Many commodities are taxed with rapid abundance and the citizenry are left to continue to wallow in abject poverty while government officials and their cronies flaunt their ill-gotten wealth in our faces.

President John Mahama seems to be on a roller coaster, compromising almost every member of society ready to become his prey. Many senior media persons who have been very critical of governments have now been turned into defenders of alleged corrupt activities of government officials. Some chiefs and traditional rulers who enjoy presidential largess and some business men who use their enterprises as conduit to syphon huge sums of tax payers' money into private pockets may all be part of the grand scheme to rig the 2016 elections.

The mechanisms and strategies being devised by President Mahama and NDC are very oiled with cash, resources and institutional collusion.

The 2016 elections can therefore be likened to the biblical account of David and Goliath.

The biblical account of David's victory over Goliath may be held to be an anomaly but it was not, “Davids” win all the time. The “Goliaths” may have 71.5% of wins and the “Davids” 28.5% chances. In spite of this lopsidedness, the Davids otherwise known as “underdog” won almost a third of the time. This scenarios play out in almost every facet of human life. The Japanese were literally brought to their knew when the first atomic bomb was dropped by the allied forces led by the United States of America in 1945 to end the Second World War. Today the Japanese are a super power in world affairs.

The Bill Gate of Microsoft and Steven Jobs of ipad, Oprah Winfreys and many other great men and women were all consigned to “the never do well” category until they showed the world their mettle.

In the first leg of the Ghana – Egypt world cup qualifying match played at the Baba Yara Spots Stadium in Kumasi in 2013, it was highly acknowledged that the Black Stars were the underdogs. Playing with a nation that had won the African Cup of Nations seven times back to back in contemporary games as compared to the Black Stars who had not won any competitive cup match since the last thirty years seemed a huge task. If anyone had predicted a 6:1 goal line in favor of the Black Stars nobody would have believed it.

The current political dispensation that has seen the New Patriotic Party (NPP) “losing” elections twice back to back and having an epoch in challenging the 2012 elections also dismissed by the supreme court of Ghana come as very surprising and disappointing to the rank and file and many Ghanaians.

A political party that has its roots from the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) to the United Party (UP) and then the Popular Front Party (PFP), our successes at various elections have been quite disappointing overall. The antecedents and current membership of the NPP had always been the cream de la cream of the society.

The UGCC boosted of the most influential members of Gold Coasters, made up of Lawyers, Academicians, Merchants and Businessmen and even some traditional rulers and many other persons of high societal standings.

In the 1940s, African merchants, including George Alfred Grant ("Paa Grant"), financed the organization of the political party. The UGCC was founded by J. B. Danquah on 4th August 1947 with membership from combination of chiefs, academics and lawyers including R. A. Awoonor-Williams, Edward Akufo-Addo, and Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey.

On 10th December 1947, Kwame Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast accepting J.B Danquah's invitation to become the UGCCs General Secretary. Ebenezer Ako-Adjei recommended Nkrumah whom he had met at Lincoln University. Nkrumah was offered a salary of £250, and Paa Grant paid the boat fare from Liverpool to Ghana. J.B Danquah and Nkrumah's subsequent disagreement over the direction of the independence movement caused their parting of ways after just two years.

Nkrumah went on to form the Convention People's Party and eventually became the first president of independent Ghana. The UGCC disbanded after performing poorly in the 1951 elections.

It may have been extremely paradoxical to presume that the UGCC which were made up of the educated elites, the rich and successful merchants could have lost the 1951 elections to the CPP then led by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, a latter day political figure in the Gold Coast. However, historical events clearly indicated that, that was what exactly happened. The “underdog” won and went ahead to win both the 1954 elections and the 1957 independent elections.

The 1969 election is not under consideration here because that was not a keenly contested election as the CPP had been banned from taking part in that election. Therefore, fast tracking to 1979, after the overthrow of the Prof. Kofi Abrefa Busia's government in 1972 led by General Kutu Acheampong, a similar scenario plays itself.

The Popular Front Party were equally made up of people of high repute and influence in the legal, academia and business sectors of the economy. The 1979 elections were a second litmus test where the “underdog” won. The politically unknown Dr. Hilla Limamn was able to literally pull the carpet under the feet of Mr. Victor Owusu, an astute politician and a lawyer of high repute. An election in which the Popular Front Party's presidential candidate won the first round but fell short of the constitutional requirement of more than 50% to form a government. Mr. Victor Owusu lost the second round to Dr. Hilla Limann.

Analysis of the 1992 election may also not feature in this article because although it was a free election, the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC), led by J.J. Rawlings having ruled the nation for eleven years was bowing to internal and international pressures to return the country to a constitutional civilian rule. Unlike the 1979 where the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRA) did not take part in the elections, the 1992 elections saw the military dictator changing his garment and contesting the election as a civilian.

The 2000 election was clear manifestation of a “David” win. The incumbent's candidate Late Prof. John Evans Attah Mills, who was also the Vice President, had all the advantages of incumbency. The use of state resources including military helicopters and fleets of government vehicles and state institution as well as presidential endorsement were all at his disposal for the campaign.

In spite of all these seemingly overwhelming advantages, the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) then presidential candidate Mr. John Agyekum Kuffour won the elections and formed a government between 2001 and 2008. A period which saw the socio economic condition in Ghana getting a colossal improvement. The NPP had been turned from election “underdogs” to “super tigers” by 2008.

In 2008 we perceived that victory in the election was there for the taking. The entire rank and file of the party kept the campaign slogans as “VICTORY 2008”. In fact another term was “agbe naa” a local parlance in Ga literally meaning “victory 2008 and 2012 elections were guaranteed”. Losing the 2008 and 2012 elections were therefore a great shock to the party. Imagine the shock in the camp of the Palestines when David slain Goliath.

When the 2012 election was found to have been riddled with lots of malpractices, irregularities and statutory violations, a petition was rightly sent to the Supreme Court for declarations. With plethora of evidence and an array of some of Ghana's best brains as our legal team, we had no doubt about a “victory” at the Supreme Court. On the face of the pink sheets and per the excellent performance of our legal team and the many admissions of the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan, which acquiesced with the evidence before the Supreme Court, we were so sure of a declaration in our favor, but alas we lost the case to the chagrin of many who watched the live telecast of proceedings on the television.

In the Biblical story of David and Goliath, David initially put on a coat of mail and a brass helmet and girded himself with a sword: he prepared to wage a conventional battle of swords against Goliath. But then he stopped. “I cannot walk in these, for I am unused to it,” he said and picked up those five smooth stones.

In both the 2008 and 2012 elections as well as the 2013 election petition, the NPP came to the table with a Goliath's mentality and lost. As we lace our boots for the 2016 elections, I humbly pray the leadership and the rank and file to engage the people of Ghana as the “underdogs” and “David mentality”. We should assume in all humility that winning the 2016 election is not going to be a tea party. The conventional methods and strategies must give way to a different approach.

It is time for the NPP to do things differently.

Kwaku Amankwah-Sarfo
Email: [email protected]
Tel; 0244 25 55 25 / 0544 33 13 24