We know it as a fact that Ghanaians have moved beyond this government and President Akufo-Addo and as such, are looking up to the National Democratic Congress to bring out that candidate who understand the nuances of Ghanaians. That candidate who has the ability to turn our situation in the country today around.
We have built up so much momentum after our branch, constituency, regional and national elections, it is now time for us to pick up the momentum again till we land in the Flagstaff House.
Ghanaians are interested in who leads the NDC because of Akufo Addo’s misrule, incompetence and the untold hardship in the country. Owing to Akufo Addo’s incompetence, Ghanaians purchasing power has become abysmally low, industries have wound up with attendant mass job losses, foreign direct investments have hit all time low, our international partners and investors have lost confidence in doing business with our local businessmen, while this administration has no economic blueprint except excessive borrowing. Some Npp sympathisers and some true patriots have continued to leave the Npp in droves to the repositioned NDC, which has become the rallying platform for all well meaning Ghanaians, in their collective quest for a new President.
Moreover, while it is settled that President Akufo Addo is no match to any of our presidential aspirants, all indices points to his imminent defeat as the NDC remains committed to a credible, free, fair and transparent presidential primary, where Ghanaians will freely participate to throw up that President that will lead our country back to the path of unity, peace, good governance, infrastructural development and economic prosperity.
John Mahama will surely emerge the winner of the presidential primary no two ways about that.
About 99. 9 percent of NDC supporters, sympathisers and Ghanaians who craving for change in 2020, want Mahama to lead the NDC into that battle. The crave for his return has intensified because happenings in the country including, the massive corruption, nepotism, killings and kidnappings, contract killings, human right abuses etc. Ghanaians are looking for an inspiring leader as opposed to an authoritative one. They looking for a leader who is more people centric, humble and truly caring. Everyone is born with a leader inside but there are few who let the leader come out to make a change. Happenings in the country have confirmed and given credence to this assertion. Mahama questioned ideas and gave answers to questions which nobody wants to. He stayed calm under fire and calmly showed us what was indeed right. Post 2016 events have vindicated him and brutally exposed the wickedness, incompetence, and hypocrisy of his opponents who spent years telling wicked lies about him and his government.
The NDC at this point needs a leader with vast political experience who processes social and emotional intelligence to unite the party for the 2020 agenda.
Surely, John is the best bet and surely going to win. Our target should be 2020. We need collective effort to achieve the envisioned target. While we should take pride in our victory as supporters of Mahama, you don’t just be a sore winner. Mahama continue to earn respect across board because he acknowledges the fact that any victory belongs not to an individual but to the party or team. All his apostles must emulate this powerful trait going forward.
The act of forgiveness involves letting go of judgement and blame game and move forward. That doesn’t mean retention of pythons or allowing infiltration of monsters no. We only have to calm those people around who might hold grievance or any preconceived notion against the inner establishment.
We need this atmosphere because of the complexity of the battle ahead. In 2020, it is going to be a battle to remove a tyrant, an Amin type of a politician. The President has suspended our constitution and ruling the country according to his whims and caprices. The balance between the executive and the other arms of government has been dismissed. The President has declared its right to suspend habeas corpus indefinitely, to tap anyone’s phone without court warrant, to detain and torture anymore it decides is an enemy. We have already left the realm of constitutionalism. We are going to remove a de facto dictator hence the need for a untied front.
The President is going to elect deputy electoral commissioners to replace those who will soon go on retirement in addition to the two and the chairperson he recently appointed. He will nominate the next Chief Justice. He recently appointed new Judges to the supreme court. These are the cards the President holds into the next election apart from his influence over heads of our security agencies. These are the critical issues we must critically evaluate and work on before 2020.
A research done between 2012 and 2016, revealed that two-thirds of elections in Africa and almost half of all elections in Asia and Eastern Europe featured significant vote burying and rigging. Worse still, more than a third of elections in all these regions saw state sponsored violence against opposition parties and their supporters.
Despite this, elections are rarely condemned by international monitors, in part because rigging is becoming harder and harder to detect. Whenever monitors and election experts design new strategies to detect tried and true rigging tactics, dictators and despots innovate. What happened during the referendum and the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election should tell the opposition parties what the incumbent has for them come 2020. International support for high quality democracy and free and fair election is on the wane hence the need for the NDC to quickly organise itself, resource all the branches, constituencies etc for the task ahead. The party needs funds and a candidate who commands respect on the global stage. Fortunately for the NDC, the former President, Mr Mahama has that image. His meeting with the diplomatic cords at Peduase is a perfect start. The party need someone whose voice goes far and respected. While there many ways to rig an election, there are also many ways to save democracy. If the supporters rally behind the party and the candidate, democracy may yet win the war. The former President has shown that he is overly prepared to meet the despot and his hoodlums boot for boot. He has assured Ghanaians that his party will not allow the incumbent to subvert the constitution.
PREPARATION SO FAR
The former President has become more effective because of his attitude of listening. How he has carried himself so far, interacting and listening to his party’s leadership, supporters, sympathisers, grassroots, conveys to his party folks that they are valued by the former President. He took full responsibility of what happened in 2016 and quickly urged his folks on to put behind them the defeat and get on board. He welcomed criticisms and thoughts that came from all around. He also supported and continue to support the party financially as a former leader.
The NDC needs money for its 2020 campaign. Companies, individuals, foreign organisations and companies critically assess the chances of a candidate or political party before they sponsor them or invest in their campaign. The party’s strength in 2020 will depend hugely on the support its candidate brings on board. It is not about just taking the position and going to sleep. We need a resourceful leader, a leader whose image will attract business magnates, companies etc to support the campaign.
The Npp is going to fight the 2020 election tooth and nail. They will only relent when they are forced to do so by the weight of domestic opposition or an international ultimatum. Already, some of the aspirants have sent out that divine signal that they are afraid of Nana Akufo Addo, they cannot take pressure, and are not prepared to apply the boot for boot approach. To them, 2024 is the time not 2020. They are in this competition to prepare the path for 2024. They see NDC victory in 2020 as an attack against their political ambition. The NDC must lose the 2020 election to enable them move steps closer to their presidential ambitions.
CHANCES
It is a notorious fact that the Mahama administration outperformed the Akufo Addo government in every sphere of governance. The desperate Akufo Addo , like a student who has not read for his forthcoming examination, is in panic mode . The NDC in 2020 can point to more than 10,000 major projects it initiated, started and completed under John Mahama. They can challenge the Npp to point to projects it has implemented from the over Ghc 60 billion borrowed so far, from money taken from our statutory funds and projects executed from the huge revenue from our oil and other resources.
The districts and the villages will ask government why it did not provide them the factories and dams, the constituencies will demand for explanation as to why the $1 million did not hit their accounts. Unemployment has gone up in spite of the Npp’s campaign promise to end unemployment in Ghana. Government has abandoned all major projects started by the Mahama administration including schools, hospitals etc. The communities will punish the incumbent for abandoning these projects