New Patriotic Party On Death Row

The current political play of the New Patriotic Party towards the 2016 general election points clearly towards doomsday. The New Patriotic Party is currently divided along factions and classes laced with a personality cult. While the majority of distant analysts simply see the current brouhaha as normalcy in the build-up to the next election, experiences of the immediate past point otherwise.

In 2007, shortly after the presidential primaries which saw Nana Addo emerge as the presidential candidate, a devastating turmoil broke out in major regions and cities in the country. Many who had analyzed the scenario saw it as the uprising of some individuals against the failure of their preferred candidate to emerge victorious but far from this assumption, the violence that greeted the 2008 election was bitterness and hatred contorted in betrayal. For individuals like me who are caught between the flames and brimstone, it wasn't just about losing an election but the outpouring of decades of suppressed hatred, intolerance and class struggles.

I say this because the current political situation in the New Patriotic Party is heading towards the like of 2008 and maybe much more dreadfully so. The major opposition party called the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is hell bent on taking over the country's affairs in 2016 while the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) which has been in power for over 7 years has sworn not to let go. But the morality of the parties is nothing to lose sleep over.

The greater threats are the candidates, both of who are likely to put forward. President Mahama sees a failed re-election as a shame and insult to his family and his party as a whole. His kinsmen from the Northern Region and the National Democratic Congress feels the same and the unguarded statements from top 'ex'-militants from within the NDC (who seem to have an expansive arsenal) demonstrates clearly that they will give everything to hold on to power.

For the opponent on the other hand, Nana Addo is a well-respected man who enjoys a wide range of appeal across the country (except for his perceived rigid mono-family believe) and commands an assembly of radical and unruly followers of mostly older men who are determined to ensure he emerges as president or they die trying. With the current postulations of possible electoral outcomes, the odds favours the President as the Ghanaian voting pattern is more rural than cosmopolitan.

Unfortunately for the opposition, the rural climes are less concerned about who emerges president as their major concern is limited to the local and national politics, hence, the party with the most ubiquitous structure in a particular constituency wins such constituencies no matter who is bearing its presidential flag.

Far from the rumoured analysis of a possible breakaway from the NPP in 2017, the response to another defeat to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo -Addo in 2016 will be nothing short of catastrophic, especially, at a time when segregation is the order of the day, coupled with a psychological frame of mind of factionalism that has engulfed the constituencies as a result of the unending suspensions and rebellions.

Suggesting that the 2016 election be postponed till a new voter’s register is compiled will amount to only shifting the danger. The people deserve to choose their leaders.

A possible way to avert the looming danger is to have Nana Addo Dankwah Akufu-Addo withdraw from the presidential race in the interest and unity within the NPP and Ghana, but this will be asking too much of a man the world has already tagged weak and indecisive. Another way out is appealing to the opposition party to choose another candidate other than Nana Addo whose defeat may send the country into flames but for a party that has given everything to become where and what it is today, such plea will appear selfish.

While the world awaits the coming tsunami, the electoral commission and indeed concerned world leaders should ensure that the NPP and its candidate sign an undertaken to take full responsibility for any uprising that might ensure after the election. Such a document shouldn't be localized but better signed at Hague, since; I cannot trust the Christian Council or Peace Council. Ghanaians should be made to understand that killing fellow citizens in the disguise of political persuasion is nothing but murder and as such can never be justified. Politicians are never worth dying or killing for, as those who declare war most often never lead.