Political parties like families and ethnic groups have peculiar characteristics that influence policies, strategies and engagement in the political and national economic space.
There are parties in which members just believe their leaders and are willing to believe and project whatever their leaders tell them. There are parties too who believe their leaders but will question and be satisfied before going along with statements and directives given by their leaders.
The later progresses well with sober leadership quality and broader engagement because members are not mere instructions takers but reviewers of instruction before abiding by it. The quiet disposition but active commitment of the later by both members and leaders maybe positive in keeping national peace but can create late response phenomenon in strategy formulation, marketing and projection of leaders. Projection of leaders is the greatest support in difficult times like the one in which elections results are being challenged.
In 2016 when the president and flag-bearer was consistently described as corrupt and incompetent most members of the former believed their leaders ‘, the attack and marketed the tagging. At the same time members of the former also believed that whatever their leaders claimed against the later was true and was equally marketed. It took another four years for people to realize the flag-bearer was rather fighting corruption and very competent.
As usual, the later believed the masses has the ability to discern that it was not true. Usually the former will be supported by writings and publications by supporters. Another level of support is readiness to accord business people, journalists , traditional leaders , professional groups and academia among others with respect as a result they add value to their position on matters for public consumption and for political marketing.
In the 2020 elections dispute even though the NPP did not provide any comprehensive data to demonstrate beyond doubt that they won the elections , NDC members were questioning their leaders to demonstrate that they collated their results and showcase their setup. The NPP showcased and mystified Mr Joe Anokye as the all in all for their election fortunes. Even though NDC has time tested IT and data management experts who worked very hard to generate data that triggered the first stage suspicions about election results, it is as if the NDC was behind the process when the reality is that the team produced timely data outcomes for the leadership.
Yesterday, Mr. Joe Anokye explained that it is difficult to collate all the results and pink sheets and in particular the parliamentary results from Techiman South. This went viral on Facebook and why? It is because the NDC believed in this mystery about Joe Anokye. Believe and project your own. You have competitive technical men and women. When Madam Gisela Agbotui filed to contest, nobody explained to the public as part of the quality human resource of the party. Her profession as an architect and a member of the Airport company who contributed to the admirable facelift of the Kotoka and Kumasi airports. Projecting your people means supporting your people. It is not about hyping.
Too many questions maybe good when formulating policies but when same is directed to leadership in the field of work , it may not be helpful.
There is a new propaganda which started few days ago asking NDC members to question their leaders and blame them and not the Electoral commission (EC). Another one is go to court if you have evidence. The aim of all these is to propagate that NDC does not have leaders who can protect their votes ,therefore ,the problem of the NDC is the leadership. Till now , NDC groups have not come out to publicly indicate how they believe in the hard work of their leadership and are happy with decisions taken so far, some are rather putting pressure on leadership to prove to them whether or not they have a case. The core leaders of the party have spoken on what they are doing . Few leaders have spoken in NPP but one can clearly see some CSOs supporting what NPP is saying. Yesterday Senior Lawyer Samuel Okudjeto and a Member Of Council Of State has spoken about the election dispute. Yesterday Joe Anokye was on Good Evening Ghana Program discussing how effective they were coordinating and collating results but at the end of the interview it was clear they are human and could not collate all.
Question is when is any elder of NDC, professional forum of NDC, the IT director etc. coming to speak publicly? Remember perception build political propaganda and strategy. There is a huge propaganda against the leadership of NDC that must be quelled immediately. You should also deployed some of your elders, professionals, let your members demonstrate public support. You have now NPP leaders to tell your members how they should take your explanations and what they should do.
Genuinely , many among your membership and the public don’t know that when the NPP disputed the 2012 elections, they did not go to court immediately. They held protests, demonstrated while auditing pink sheets to build their case. They were not sharing sensitive parts of their findings.
When NDC is being told go to court nobody from NDC is telling those saying so that going to court is not the first option but the last option. Under some circumstances without exhausting the redress processes with the EC, you maybe throughout of court. As you prepare your pink sheets data for further engagement with the EC and the final option of going to Court, explain to members and the public the stage you are now without providing details of the sensitive evidence.
The campaign message for any future elections is being developed, stop it now. The strategy for your members to believe your opponents and not the leadership of the NDC has been planted quickly uproot it. You also need your respected former diplomat, former Council of State members to articulate and re- articulate why you rejected the results and the democratic steps being taken.
Let there be peace. Let there be justice. Let there be leadership support. Let there be openness and let there be strategic support.
