By Tse, Frederick K. Kofi
To say literature and punditry on the quaky defeat of the John Mahama-led NDC is stale is to say my pastor should stop preaching the word of God.
“But faith comes by hearing and hearing, by the word of God”, seen?
John Mahama of the “Nyame na esi hene”, fame was humiliated by Ghanaians. Prior to the elections, I have said elsewhere that whoever loses the Dec 7 elections deserves it. Indeed, President Mahama deserves to lose this election and I am scandalized to hear people say #JMb3ba2020.
Coming up to election 2016, the NDC coined many slogans which were in sharp contrast with the brazen reality that many Ghanaians are faced with.
The NDC was shouting agenda 57% when 57year olds were afraid of retirement because their pension which is not well managed would be taxed; they campaigned for one touch victory when a touch with teenagers’ libido could produce a future unemployed youth as a result of Tekper’s all-purpose economic policy—taxes. Taxing libido is inhumane, folks. The NDC was hungry for 1million votes in Ashanti at a time when the simultaneous construction of three markets in Kumasi has displaced ten thousands of families and left probably over one million of Ashanti residents hungry. “Hmmm, Fred, they should have prepared a place for the traders before driving them out. Now my mum has lost her customers and sales have been so poor that I struggle with my fees”, says one Portia whose mother was hit by the Kejetia Market construction.
In fact, there was a mathematical quandary of difference, which displayed the missing link between the hopes of the party executives and the effects of the Tax-hungry policies of the Finance Minister. And the Ghanaian voter did not fail to vote out the ‘jama politicians’.
As for the President, he deserves the bully done him by mainstream media. The media didn’t care about any accusations of a conspiracy.
Why should the media, which gave you so many opportunities to clean up the system, be blamed for your insouciance? The media’s call to the king about his nakedness was clogged, so the only option left was to take the responsibility to cloth a presidency which has become the butt of jokes and a punching bag for criticisms. The President would have silenced the media and all his critics, if he had fought corruption with seriousness but he failed Ghanaians and eventually failed himself.
No More Social Democracy
The reason why the NDC should lick its wounds alone is that, they have lost touch with the so-called social democratic tenets. A lot of its appointees were in it for the money. There was scramble for contracts among ministers and party executives, from the presidency to the district level. They did not remember candidates who lost at the primaries elections let alone the masses for available contracts. It was purely a crony affair that even in the Volta Region “Northners” who do not have merit were appointed DCEs to the chagrin of the people. The party has no serious structures in place to recruit competent and selfless persons into positions, leaving the con ones to pay their ways through. Now that voters know how “dark the con of man” is, the NDC is rejected and its leaders should go and learn lessons.
Living in the past
While the NPP flaunts itself as the party with the men to deliver a buoyant economy to the people of Ghana, the NDC prides itself as the party that delivers votes. It was nauseating to hear members of NDC refer to themselves as ‘Election winning machine’ and ‘December 7 Champions’ instead of governance champions. Once businesses, civil society, and the international media believe the NPP are better managers of the economy, the NDC will soon cease to represent the hopes of the youth if it doesn’t revise its tenets and its style of governance.
As we speak now the NPP continues to make itself attractive to the youth and middle class, a population that would continue to form the swing and first time voters. It is funny for a governing party to complain about over voting when the opposition party was able to recruit an expert from NASA in order not to blame itself for lack of vigilance.
Was the NDC serious about governing a country when inexperience communicators spoke on behalf of an entire government at a time when men like Ken Ofori-Atta became a ‘footsoldier’ for the NPP? No. That is why they lost. It is so simple; even if Bawumia told 170 lies, those lies are more believable than 170 truths by the “babies with sharp teeth” and fat bellies. They had better go recruit people with gravitas. Oh yea!
My checks from the Northern region show that the youth in Tamale see Dr. Bawumia as their intellectual icon. Any wonder the NDC keeps losing votes from the North?
the NDC banks its hopes on votes from the rural areas. Meanwhile, the village votes keep reducing as rural dwellers move to cities to seek greener pastures. As they dream big in the cities, they begin to learn from the middle class about how to be successful. They listen to BBC, Joy FM, Citi FM and Starr FM all of which hold conservative views. Soon they begin to ask questions about the economy. These are the people who call their family members in the village to tell them who to vote for and since they are the bread winners of their families, the NDC will continue to lose votes if it doesn’t appeal to those living in city centers like Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale etc.
It is projected that half of the world would live in cities by 2050. In Ghana, the rural urban migration keeps increasing. Simply the world, just like Ghana, is being urbanized. Any serious political party who wants to enjoy power for long would implement policies which affect city dwellers positively. Economic growth, jobs, currency stability, good transport system and freedom and respect for the press are some of the priority issues for city dwellers. For the millennial, no amount of character assassination or tribal exploitation can get you their votes. In fact, many don’t care the devil about ethnicity. The NDC failed to notice this and so couldn’t direct policies to tap into these demographic dividends.
You see when you hear people talk about “ebi di roads we go chop”? You can’t blame them. Infrastructure is good but there are much more important economic variables that would have made the NDC popular. If governance were all about building schools and roads then GHACEM would have been the best government. Seen?
Perhaps the 10% kickbacks they receive on every contract, blurred their thoughts until Ghanaians kicked them in the back.
Consider the choice of running mate, the hopes of a one touch victory and the campaign executions and one can conclude that the party either has a lazy research department or it doesn’t consider research inputs into its decision making process.
They have not learnt anything from the NPP’s defeat in 2008 and so deserve to lose this election. Public institutions like political parties must come to a point where all decisions are taken based on research else they shouldn’t come close to seeking our mandate.
With this kind of maladministration , no amount of John 3:16 and Psalm 91 verses would be a bait to the Ghanaian voter. Da sei!
Writer’s e-mail: Kelikofi@gmail.com
