Ineffective communication strategy; NPP must watch it!!!

When the NPP administration wanted to contract the CNCTI loan, it was NDC leading members as Mr. Ato Ahwoi, Tsatsu Tsikata etc that led the charge, delved into the company's background and came up with evidence to the effect that the said contract was going to be a fiasco because the company involved didn't have the capacity to honour their obligation under the agreement.

I very well remember those were the days Citi-FM's flagship current affairs programme 'eye-witness news' was in its formative years with Paul Adom-Otchere as the commander-in-chief.Mr Ato Ahwoi was always on daily editions of the programme with well-researched materials and profusely quoted from them to advance his argument.

Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, on the other-hand, provided details of potential repercussions of the nation going ahead to contract that loan; and during all that period the debate lasted, I never heard any NDC member of parliament being accused of being part of a parliamentary delegation abroad to discuss the details of the loan.

On the other-hand, the so-called leading members of NPP are only heard on radio when it is time for internal party elections where they are ready to spew mountains of absolute garbage on air, at completely unfriendly early morning hour, even when their wives are lying on them in bed and craving to be satisfied, romantically.

Fast-forwarding the argument to today, the parliamentary delegation which traveled to South Korea to negotiate the STX deal consisted of some leading NPP-MPs including the minority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu.These NPP-MPs, in addition to their entitled comfortable hotel accommodation, sumptuous meals and palatable sweet-after-meals, were other priceless gifts from the STX Company.

And just recently, is the case of these china chairs, tables and carpets to refurbish parliament; here too, some leading members of npp-mps,including the very minority leader,Mr Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu,were on the trip abroad to inspect these feeble products, gave them a clean-bill-of-health, and were actually air-lifted to Ghana.

Again, just about a month ago, members of parliament were recalled, under the certificate of emergency, to append their signatures to a couple of damn useless loan agreements. The 600-page document covering the loan agreement were given to the parliamentarians on the evening of Wednesday, and the loan of nearly 2billion dollars was approved on the morning of next day,Thursday,with full participation of NPP-MPs.

Following the signing of that loan, i have heard some NPP-MPs actually coming out to confess that they never were able to peruse the document before appending their signatures to approve the agreement the following morning. So the question is; what stopped the minority NPP-MPs from boycotting the signing of such a loan agreement, when they hadn't had ample time to scrutinize the contents?

So, whenever these reckless moves by the NDC government and their bunch of majority zombies in parliament have come under public scrutiny, they have had the genuine reason to rope-in the minority be blamed too.

Very soon,NPP will be having parliamentary primaries and there will be another bouts of noise-making on the media landscape about the party's internal matters, with these so-called 'leading members' of the party talking to radio stations when they haven't even brushed their teeth and their mouths exuding shit-like smelling odour.

Facebookers supporting various candidates will also embark on their sharp-tongue crusade of coming up with all kinds of unfounded allegations against candidates they don't support. Some of these campaigners on social media are experts only in running down fellow party members but are totally helpless when it comes to doing research to fully equip them to enable them expose the NDC incompetence.

By the end of first term of John Mahama in 2016, the P(NDC) would have been in power for 25years out of our 58years as an independent nation; and with just the 8years NPP has had under the 4th republic, after inheriting a HIPC economy in the tear 2001, the Kufour-led administration was able to actualize the most comprehensive people-centered policies ever witnessed in our nation's history.

But inspite of all the successes chalked, the NDC was able to win, whether foul or fair, the 2008 elections by putting in-place a well-thought-out propaganda machine, and with all the resources, both human and material, that was at the disposal of NPP as the ruling government, the party lost power by a whisker.

with the prevailing economic conditions coupled with historic labour agitations, openly reckless dissipation of state resources and unbridled officially-sanctioned looting of state coffers, an opposition NDC would have easily won the media war, effectively tapped into the general discontent of ordinary ghanaians,easily made the ruling government so unpopular and the 2016 elections would have been a cool-chop for them.

As we speak, the ongoing NDC internal elections have been thrown into total chaos as a result of countless court injunctions but this isn't being discussed in the media. Innocent Ghanaians are being shot dead in their homes and cars, on daily basis, but NPP has failed to shed light on such scary development.

Anytime NPP communicators get the chance to speak on air over a pressing national issue, they will always spend over 70% of their allocated time to greet their girl-friends, school mates, co-tenants, waakye/kooko sellers in their neighborhoods, and top it up with birthday dedications to people from their polling stations, all the way to national council of the party.

However, Rocco Frimpong was killed, and NDC was able to introduce "CONTRACT KILLING" into our nation's political lexicon. The issue of Ya Naa and Issah Mobilla were kept in the media head-lines for close to 3years and that resulted in Haruna Iddrissu, Innusa Fusein etc getting the chance to be parliamentarians.

So, until NPP,as a body cooperate, actually strategize, by way of effectively selling our message, render responsible/vibrant opposition and proffer cogent policy alternatives to that of totally inept NDC government,then,we would have a serious hurdle to surmount in 2016.

Indeed, Dr Amoako-Baah, the head of political science department of KNUST,has said that, in the light of prevailing unprecedented crass ineptly inept ineptitude and shocking levels of unadulterated corruption being exhibited by the John Mahama-led NDC administration, should NPP fail to win the 2016 elections,then,the party and its followers should forget about ever winning power and rather brace themselves to wallow in the political wilderness till the second coming of Christ.

SO THOSE WITH EARS, LET THEM LISTEN WITH COCKED-EAR!!!

Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei

Executive Director

(Center for Media Policy)

E-mail: justnoff@yahoo.com