A government in need of communication training

Things had not been smooth for the ruling National Democratic Congress

government under President Mills. The government and the party are smarting from

sustained pressure from the opposition, resulting in a series of very bad press.

It’s been a bad week but also a test of the government and party’s strategies

for damage limitation.

It started with the discharge of two officials of the Kufour government (Kwadwo

Mpiani and C. Wereko-Brobbey) who had been charged for wilfully causing

financial loss to the state; then the tirade of a church leader who minced no

words in condemning the government. And just as I thought the government had the

chance to capture the news agenda and turn the heat on the opposition following

Reverend Asante Antwi’s comments, the NDC’s National Chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei

spoke in what the opposition again dictates as “spoken out of turn”. And all the

hostile press is in spite of the monumental progress made not just in the GDP

but in the “GROSS WELL BEING” (GWB) of Ghanaians.

I am very disheartened, not because of the desperate smear of the opposition New

Patriotic Party; No. I am disheartened because of the abysmal performance of the

government’s communications machinery - an unacceptable deficiency I have been

speaking loudly about since July 2009 - and the incapability of the

attorney-general to get her courtroom shenanigans right and deliver justice to

an expectant nation in cases of suspected economic crime and assassinations

committed in times of peace under the Kufour led government.

I am disheartened because the ruling government has had the NPP by the scruff of

its neck; and instead of squeezing its corrupt leaders so decisively that their

feet would not touch the ground, the government is pandering to unrealistic

political niceties, forgetting that we are in a political contest and that

millions of our compatriots who were let down by the NPP are praying that we

restored their trust in politics. When state resources are squandered on frills,

people want something done.

I am disheartened because a party that was rejected overwhelmingly less than two

years ago by Ghanaians is beginning to take the moral high ground thanks to

government’s inability to exploit its earlier opportunities and put its best

foot forward.

In fact, people were so repulsed by Mr. Kufour and his discredited appointees

that they would look for the sick bucket whenever they saw them or their agents

on television. I am appalled because President Mills has refused to put down his

political baggage – ministers who have brought nothing but pillory to the party

and government. The communications team has been next to useless since we took

office.

In less than two years, the NPP, a party that let down the fed up man in the

street; a party rejected by the electorates in spite of coercion, intimidation,

cover-up of high crimes against the people of Dagbon, is the one whose members

feel encouraged and embolden to question government instead of getting on their

knees and apologising to Ghanaians.

This is a party which disregarded article 40(a) of our constitution and promoted

their own interest instead of national interest as it sold off Ghana Telecom and

other state companies cheaply when they were required by law to promote and

protect the interest of the fed up man in the street.

As a card bearing member of the NDC, I am duty bound to give President Mills

every help and encouragement, but I get frustrated when the president has

refused my calls since last year that amongst other urgent things in his

in-tray, he needs razor sharp spokespersons who can not only articulate the

government’s successes but develop an early warning system – a media firewall

around the government that would detect and repel potential hostile coverage.

Guidance on how to avoid unsavoury publicity doesn’t come cheaply; there are

professionals out there, including sympathisers whose expertise could be tapped.

Good things are happening and the nation must be informed how much savings we

have made thanks to the prudent management of the economy; how much of the

deficit we have reduced and what we have done in order to avoid leaving a huge

deficit for tomorrow’s generation.

The sooner we are able engage political communicators who know how to capture

the news agenda, the sooner Ghanaians would support us in not just holding

corrupt NPP officials by their scruff, but support us making sure their feet

don’t touch the ground.

With a totally unpeaceful candidate like Akufo-Addo who has a predilection for

rhetoric and complaints, Ghanaians should feel good about the future and trust

the NDC to deliver all of its pre-election promises. The sooner we are able to

make changes at the communications outfit, the sooner the people would see the

future.

Ras Mubarak

mmubarak79@yahoo.com

RAS MUBARAK