In my layman’s view, I have few personal points I will love to share with readers why the New Democratic Congress [NDC] will be addressed as an opposition party, in less than 48 hours from now.
The NDC as a party saw the defeat coming long ago, but they ignored it. It might also be the case that they were unable to see it because of the fact that they were intoxicated with power!
The IMF bailout: They [NDC] did not lose political points just because they took refuge in IMF, but it was because the refuge NDC took in IMF was a forecast projected by an economic guru – Dr Bawumia [Vice President elect], who was also the running mate to the President elect – Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Political history has it that previous governments in our Republic have also taken refuge in the IMF to rescue a crumbling economy of Ghana. But for an individual [Dr Bawumia] to have made such a huge prediction/forecast only for it to be fulfilled comes as a damaging blow to the outgoing government. His prediction was also welcomed with huge castigations from communicators of the outgoing government [babies with sharp teeth, as Ex President Rawlings would call them]. Fulfillment of Dr Bawumia’s prediction gave the impression to electorates that indeed the outgoing government was not in full grip of the economy.
“Bring your manifesto saga”: This was one of the strongest indicators I used in detecting that they were losing the elections. They were all over the media, tasking the main opposition to bring their manifesto, when they had not placed theirs on the table for scrutiny. They were rather busy countering every proposed policy of the NPP characterized by the usual “it’s not possible” mantra.
Party crony centered: They were too focused on party cronies, as if they were elected to serve the interest of only their card bearing members. In fact to an extent, your colours should be identified with the colours of the NDC before you are offered a job, even if you were over qualified. This posture made them lost touch with the floating voter whose vote contributed to bringing them to power in 2008 and 2012.
Pre-empting NPP’s proposed Free Senior High School [SHS] Policy: Everybody in Ghana heard how they [NDC] said it was not possible for any government to implement free SHS during the 2012 electioneering campaign; only for them to turn around to be implementing what they said was not possible. It was a clear case of hypocrisy. The announcement of free Day SHS came to Ghanaians only as political expediency at the time. Unfortunately, they got exposed when Ghanaians discovered that Day SHS students were still paying outrageous fees after all. They were further exposed when it came to light that government had huge outstanding debts to be paid to these same Senior High Schools in most parts of the country. Media reports have it that some schools in the North had threatened to close down their Senior High Schools due to gargantuan outstanding debts.
Eleventh hour project commissioning spree: President Mahama deserves a tap on the shoulder for the massive infrastructural developments carried out across the country. Yes we agree that we have huge deficit when it comes to infrastructural development in Ghana. But should the economy be brought to its knees for nearly eight years because we are investing in infrastructure? I think the answer is no that was why the electorates decided to vote the way they voted; even in the face of all these end times projects. I usually relate this posture of investment in infrastructure at the expense of bread and better matters for the electorates to something I call “Daddy and his family scenario”: Daddy came home one day and told his family they are tired of renting apartments, so in order for the family to have comfort in their own home, he is putting up a building. The conditions attached to this good news were that, kids will no more have pocket monies when going to school, the family will feed once daily [certain times nil!] and no one in the family will have the opportunity of furthering his/her education until the housing project is completed. What do you make of Daddy’s decision? Awful, I guess? I also think most of these projects we saw being commissioned by President Mahama came too late and untimely. They appeared as though they were covered and later uncovered at the dying embers of the game to lure electorates into voting for him [President Mahama]. Completed projects were even commissioned across several Regions when we had only about 48 hours to elections – too close! Lesson: Do not wait until the eleventh hour to ambush electorates with projects when they have been starved for more than four years; they will take it as an insult on their intelligence.
Character assignation: It was a well orchestrated political strategy meant to bring down the person of NDC’s main opposition leader. The character assassination worked so well for the NDC during the 2008 and 2012 elections; instead of devising a different lucrative one, they rather remained glued to the old. In fact the extreme nature of assassinating the character of Nana Addo rather turned to play to his advantage – it became a tool for marketing the President elect unknowingly. Communicators of NDC in all media platforms could not talk more than three minutes without bringing down the person of Nana Addo; telling how unfit he is for the presidency and all manner of unprinted languages. I lamented over these in an article I published titled, “Sipping Alvaro with Kulikuli” when we were gearing up for the elections in 2016. Maybe they should ask Hannah Tetteh how was market when she decided to engage in character assassination of her opponent in her fragile constituency?
Engineered crowds: I have always heard people [even political experts] say crowds don’t win elections, but I beg to differ. I think we should rather say that engineered crowds don’t win elections, but genuine ones do. There were massive crowds at both NDC and NPP rally grounds, even PPP had considerable crowds at their rally grounds. But there is one thing that was clear, and is even common public knowledge that, in an attempt for the NDC to make people believe that they have such huge followers, they engineered these crowds through several means. Unemployed youths in several constituencies were organized, given few Ghana cedis, quality NDC party T-Shirts and bussed to party rally grounds. It was hard for most of these youths to resist some of these freebies, looking at the level of poverty and unemployment. What the leadership of the NDC failed to realized was that the youth/crowed they saw at their rally grounds were not necessarily there because of party loyalty or because NDC deserved reelection, but because they were bait with freebies to be there. Similarly, PPP engineered crowds just as NDC did, and it has also shown a clear mismatch between the percentage votes they had in the elections and the crowds which graced PPP’s rallies.
Rubbishing series of researches: They [NDC] became well-known for rubbishing almost every scientific research which did not go their way. A research is only credible only when it was going to score political points for the ruling NDC. Several hard-earned researches and surveys conducted during the eight year period were reduced to politics and rubbished in several media platforms by party political communicators. I would have loved they had rather critique certain aspects of such researches and surveys; say, the method employed in selecting sampled population, research design, or tool employed in data analysis. Who knows, some of these communicators might have never even reviewed literature for an academic research before, but have the opportunity to be on media platforms [in the name of party politics] to run an institution and its research conducted down. They [NDC] lost sympathies of most researchers in on this point.
Failing to crack the whip: President Mahama failed to bring some of his appointees to book. There were several of them who were alleged to have engaged in corrupt practices and misappropriation of state funds. It actually showed some level of weakness in his leadership, not only because he failed to bring the perpetrators to book but also because he was perceived by the greater proportion of the public to be egging on such alleged practices. Probably the Ghanaian voter did not forget of how alleged culprits relinquished their ministerial positions for alleged corruption and promoted to the presidency and the Flagstaff House.
Corruption: The least talked about this one the better. Every household in Ghana could probably give account of how this factor of their defeat unfolded. It was poorly managed. But I think it also took the vigilance of selfless media men like Manasseh Azure Awuni and others to uncover some of these rots. I have also told people that Manasseh Azure is not going to be silent on corruption no matter which political party is in power. I look forward to being vindicated. I look forward to the newly elected government learning some lessons from series of corruption scandals which bedeviled the outgoing government.
The wayward/killer salary arrears policy: Whoever advised the President on this policy actually contributed to his downfall. This policy brought new financial burden to the public sector worker. The policy does not really make any labour sense in any part of the world.
Cancellation of trainee allowances: For me to wake up to read that the NDC government [social democrats] had cancelled trainee allowances for nurses and teachers came as a big surprise to me. Immediately, I said it had never been true, for it was true; they [NDC] were going to lose the 2016 general elections. They justified this unpopular decision with all sort of arguments from several angles. Close to the elections, they seemed to have woken from their slumber and did what I call, suicidal political U-turn to restore the allowance for nursing trainees.
Affluent campaign: Ghanaians bought into the idea that the massive billboards, other party paraphernalia and sharing of freebies geared toward vote buying was being sponsored with state funds. The invisible and short billboards of Nana Addo were obviously a mismatch to the giant, visible and well branded billboards of President Mahama. Probably for Nana Addo to have stated that the battle between him and Mahama was that between David and Goliath might have been as a result of some of these giant billboards that welcomed Nana in every corner of the country, when he went campaigning. Eventually David won! The inference is that electorates bought into the idea that the NDC’s affluent campaigns were state sponsored.
“Montie 3 saga”: This saga was mishandled by Mahama’s administration. It got so many Ghanaians infuriated, especially when he went ahead to grant them the questionable presidential pardon. Several political commentators and experts had said it was a bad precedence set by the President and clear indication of antagonizing another arm of government.
The Rawlings factor: Volta Region has been tagged as the world bank of the NDC, not because of the colours of the NDC, or John Mahama, but because of a hero called Flt. Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings; if you doubt me, go to Atiavi Glime [my hometown] in the Keta Constituency and ask my grandfather. The supposed voter apathy in the Volta Region played out probably because they thought their darling boy [J. J.] who is also the Founder of the party has been disrespected and sidelined. He was virtually on holiday on their campaign platforms, in the 2016 electioneering campaigns. He also suffered few punches publicly; from communicators [babies with sharp teeth] of the outgoing NDC administration, including few excruciating bites from their General Secretary [General Mosquito]
Tribal politics and neglect of the Volta Region: It’s simple; Ghanaians did not buy into the tribal politics peddled by the NDC and President Mahama in the 2016 elections. The very last one Mahama directed at Dr Bawumia [his brother] in the Northern Region was below the belt, and got him exposed as a leader with a divisive character. I have always said that poverty and underdevelopment in the Volta Region is indifferent to the one in the three Northern Regions, but unfortunately the story of the Volta always goes unreported. Some people have point out to the fact that there was voter apathy in the Volta Region [stronghold of the NDC]. I cannot take that thought or point away from them, but could it also be the case that the percentage/the number of people who came out to vote on December 7 is the true reflection of the real eligible voter population in the Volta Region?
A team against an individual: Mahama fought the battle alone, while Nana Addo fought a good fight with Dr Bawumia; coupled with their vibrant supporting spouses – Samira Bawumia and Rebecca Akufo Addo, playing significant supporting roles. Throughout the campaign, I hardly came across a poster projecting Mahama and Paa Kwasi Amissah Arthur [the then running mate to Mahama]. He was totally sidelined. Majority of the huge billboards projected only Mahama as a candidate, while the NPP projected both the President elect and his Vice President elect in almost all their campaigns. I can say for a fact that Nana Addo mentioned Dr Bawumia’s name in his campaign speeches more than Mahama did for Amissah Arthur. Bawumia had more sense of belonging in his position with the NPP as compared to his counterpart, Amissah Arthur with the NDC.
I have learnt great deal of lessons from the above development I would like to share: As professionals in our endeavors, it is important that we choose our professional associates carefully. Choose professional associates who share your dream and have the capacity to help push a common agenda. It is also important that as young people with dreams, we choose our life partners [spouses] carefully. Do not choose a life partner because he/she is beautiful or handsome, or has high academic credentials, but partners who share our dreams, believe in them [dreams] and are prepared to travel a very long and rough journey with you in achieving the dreams.
High utility tariffs coupled with the monster called “dumsor”: You don’t need a prophet to tell you this factor was going to hunt them in the elections.
Lighter sides:
President Mahama responded too often to critics: President Mahama responded to too many public criticisms during his tenure. It created the impression that he was not a tolerant leader. It travelled to the extent that he made a serious damaging comment that: no one has ever come close to the presidency before, and so no one can criticize his performance but former Presidents. That, for me, was another political and leadership speech below the belt. Judging from his demeanor on stage that day, he was very upset with his critics who tagged his government as incompetent. He could have delegated most of his response and jabs for his able communicators to take care of.
How much it cost Ghana for the redenomination exercise: This was one of the paths I had wished the president had never threaded. He lost it, not even to the then main opposition leader, but the Vice president elect, Dr Bawumia. Alas, the rebuttal from Dr Bawumia killed the debate.
Power resides in the electorates: The jab thrown to Nana Addo by President Mahama to stop begging Ghanaians for votes also played to the advantage of the former. It became a strong political weapon for the President elect, and had made reference to the statement on all his platforms. In most cases, he schooled President Mahama on the fact that he can only beg Ghanaians for their votes [thumb] because in democracy it’s the electorates that wield power but not politicians. It turned out to be true anyway; the beggar had it.
And finally, how he referred to Ghanaians who voted him into power as possessing short memories: This statement got electorates on high alert; activated their “long” memories and booted him out with their thumb. Lesson: Treat electorates with respect, for power resides in them.
Yes, I think the NDC were kicked out of power mainly due to poor economic management and unemployment, but I am also with the strong conviction that the Ghanaian electorate has mastered too many political tricks and gimmicks. Credit must also be given to the campaign managers of NPP. They did a fantastic job. Following conversations in public transports barely three weeks after the election shows that many electorates did not vote for NPP because they are members of the NPP, but because they [electorates] thought they deserved better. It appears they are going to be unanimous in booting the newly elected government out of government if they betray the trust and hope they repose in them, after four or eight years.
Long live Ghana. And good luck to the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.