NPP Communications Has Been A Disaster

The two important aspects of the campaigns for President of the Republic of Ghana at the moment are non-others than the twin combination of policy and communications. In fact, policy making in developing countries like Ghana should rank above the other because of its potential to transform the wellbeing of the broader masses of the population if it is implemented properly and effectively. However, in real terms during a presidential campaign season as it is here and elsewhere in many developed economies, nothing works the magic in winning the votes as effectively as effective communications.

It is in this sense that in the United States for example, both candidates and their campaigns are investing substantially in campaign ads. Right here in Ghana, the issue of effective communications certainly should be the priority pick amongst the lot for any presidential candidate and his/her campaign especially when the history of election campaigns in Ghana is sufficiently reviewed.

In the 2000 election campaign which resulted in the first ever transition of government from one political party to another in the Fourth Republic, the opposition NPP cruised to victory on a message of change. It was a message that was effectively targeted at bringing diversity to the Presidency after an extraordinarily long spell of Jerry Rawlings and his NDC in power. The message to avoid the monotony of having one party in power continuously, resonated well with the electorate, and for many, that was exactly what the NPP needed to fight its way right into power than any well organized and well thought through economic policy.

Also in the 2008 election which saw the NDC returned to the Presidency, then candidate Mills rallied the country against a “corrupt” government and promised to prosecute an entire government which allowed paupers to accumulate so much wealth in so short a time with no verifiable alternate source of livelihood than their positions in public office. His campaign saw a bizarre promise and pledge to arrest and prosecute the killers of the ruler of Dagbon, Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani. No matter how weird such a campaign was, it earned the support and endorsement of the masses and carried the humble professor to the Flag Staff House.

Learning from these two landmarked elections, one would expect the New Patriotic Party to be a little more calculated in their efforts to wrestle power from an incumbent government. Such a calculated effort would entail an economic policy that is not only better than the current one, but also portrays the current one as the engineer of poverty, stagnation and hardships in the country. Most of all, such a calculation would mean painting the ruling government and all of its policies and programs in the darkest possible terms.

Such a calculation will then be given the needed impetus if it is carried all the way to the bottom of the Ghanaian electorate in villages and farmlands and hamlets. So let me begin to highlight the important ways the NPP ought to communicate their campaign if they are to be genuine contenders for the Presidency in the December 7 election.

First of all, the beautiful economic policies of the party including reinstating trainee teachers and nurses allowances, should not only be sold on TV and Radio or the internet but also in the farmlands. In 2012, the NPP promised to transform head potters into decent and responsible business people by instituting an apprenticeship program to train them and provide hostel facilities for them in the cities. Interestingly, the John Mahama campaign went straight into the villages in northern Ghana where these head potters mostly come from, and telling everyone that Akuffo Addo had promised to build hostels for northern head potters so that they would be staying in the south and carrying the goods of southerners for them. Even when I returned home after the election to tell my father the exact message of the Akuffo Addo campaign at the time, I realized my father had been well indoctrinated by the Mahama counter and could not see reason with every explanation I gave. The question I asked and which many others might ask is, where was the NPP in my village at the time?

So the bottom line is that as they come out with the beautiful policies to change a Ghana that has been distressed so badly by the NDC government, the NPP ought to send and keep their soldiers on the ground in the forests and farmlands to not only preach their gospel, but to also jealously guard and protect it against the propaganda and machinations of the incumbent NDC government.

Secondly, the NPP should not limit its campaign to fine policies and programs, but should do well to project the envious reputation of its flag bearer as well. The NDC’s only campaign message is the demeanor of their presidential candidate whom they have tagged in many ways as being peaceful, a unifier and a gentleman. But the NPP has an even better personality in their candidate even if that personality is the opposite of their opponent.

In a developing country like Ghana where the wealth is aggregated in a few corrupt hands, you do not need a president who will simply sit idle by and allow corrupt people to have their way just because you want peace to prevail; in an impoverished state like Ghana where the basic necessities of life continue to evade the vast majority of the people, you do not need a leader who will eat humble pie and focus on mediocre projects when you can actually inspire the nation to go for the big kill; in a country that has suffered from foreign domination and bad trade deals with other nations, you do not need a gentle Chief Executive who will say nice things about others even when they are giving you a bad deal just because you want them to see you as a gentle king; and indeed in a country like ours where everything is going wrong, you do not need to be massaging people with sweet talk and smiling as if heaven has fallen on you. Rather, you need sometimes to hit the tables loud, shout the shit out of the hell around and cast an intolerable frown for all to know that you are never ever going to condone the dirty attitude in the public sector or tolerate the corruption in your government, and that you will never be a happy president in a devastatingly poor country where small mosquitoes are killing parents and grandparents.

In short, the New Patriotic Party has a time-tested courageous leader, an ambitious candidate, and a highly revered president to be, and the earlier they started telling Ghanaians what the NDC doesn’t want Ghanaians to know about Akuffo Addo, the better it would be for their electoral fortunes much more than their economic policy.

Lastly and most importantly, the NPP has to match the NDC boot for boot and even do more to outsmart them in the area of negative propaganda. The NDC has seen the decency of the NPP in many campaigns since independence and is now using it well against them. They know that the NPP will not attack the personality of John Mahama even if he dined and lived with homosexuals in the United States whiles launching his book.

Because of that assurance, they would go ahead and tell the Ghanaian public that the NPP’s candidate is a drug addict and a drug baron.

In simple terms, the two standout competitors for the Presidency in this year’s election are really two great sons of their country who are committed to serve and to sacrifice their personal lives for the good of the larger Ghanaian population. As good a communicator John Mahama is, he will remain a great model for aspiring future leaders in Ghana. And as good a lawyer Akuffo Addo is, he will remain a great model for generations of leaders yet unborn. But no matter whoever these guys are and what work they have done for Ghana, this year’s election just like many others, will be won by the one person and campaign team that is able to deceive the Ghanaian voters the more.

To do more than just well in the election this year means winning the Presidency, and to do that, the NPP must make sure its message of change crafted on the back of very sound policy programs is made to reach the farthest village in Ghana, and that they remain in all parts of Ghana and not just on TV and Radio to defend and keep their message straight. The NPP also has to tell Ghanaians that at this particular moment in the life of Ghana, the personality of their presidential candidate is the most suited for the Presidency. And most of all, apart from diffusing the negative propaganda of the NDC in the forests and farmlands and in all remote places in Ghana, the NPP should return equal fire of propaganda back at the NDC because if the NPP is dirty, the NDC could even be dirtier, and Ghanaians ought to know.

My message to the communications of the NPP is simple and straight: you don’t defeat a lion by being a sheep; you don’t win a military war by being peaceful; and you don’t fight bullets with water. God bless Ghana.

By David Azuliya

Mobile: 0505005012

Email: [email protected]