Let us mirror the character of Akufo-Addo

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing" - 2 Timothy 7-8.

I woke up on the morning of Sunday, 19th October, 2014, with the above-quoted Bible scripture on my heart. Initially, I wondered what the purpose of this scripture had in-store for me for the day because I had no planned schedule for any serious activity to carry out, neither did I have the intension of going to church due to tiredness arising from party activities the previous day. So, I laid quietly in my bed and kept my mind racing to ascertain exactly what God wanted to communicate to me; and after a couple of minutes, it dawns on me that the massage was all about the milestone my party NPP had chalked the previous day.

Electoral college expansion

We started this process with election of officers at the polling station level, constituency/area coordinators, regional and national officers. That certainly did not come cheap; there were some toes stepped-on, skins bruised and bodies dented, during campaigning at all levels of the electoral processes. This is to be expected in contests involving human-beings with all our frailties, fallibleness, over-zealousness and often the over-drive exuberance to please our respective preferred candidates.

I personally have never considered anything said by any of our party loyalists during internal campaigns, as a deliberate attempt to vilify anybody. The true picture is that, oftentimes, people have had to resort to such style of campaign strategy simply because they are not that deep in political communication, and for this reason, I would urge anybody that, at any point in time, has been at the receiving-end of any form of verbal attack or seemingly raw form of vilification, to, as a matter of brotherliness in forging ahead in unity to get rid of incompetent John Mahama, to put his/her shoulders to the wheel.

The impressive culmination on 18th October,2014, of all that we started a couple of months earlier, should make every single member of the great NPP family proud of belonging to this VIBRANT, ALL-INCLUSIVE, VISIONARY AND EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-ENDOWED organization. On the African continent, and indeed, in most parts of the globe, our great political tradition is unquestionably, the most vibrant and attractive, with broadest form of mass participation and ownership by members at the very grass-root level. The electoral college of 141,000, which was a novelty in Ghanaian politics, offered ordinary members of the party the opportunity to be partakers in the exercise to select who leads us into the battle of 2016 and beyond. This is something which is nouvelle in political annals of Africa, and a great deal of authority being invested in ordinary members of the party who do greater part of the work, during national electioneering campaign.

Inclusiveness

This form of inclusiveness, in my personal estimation, has been a great deal of motivation for our grassroots members to have the real sense of belonging and therefore do whatever it takes to ensure the viability of party activism at the very base. A polling station officer, who also now has the right to describe himself as a “DELEGATE”, a tag which used to be the preserve of those high-up the stratified official table, now see himself/herself as a legitimate officer of the party at that level, and will therefore be confident to exert the powers invested in him/her to ensure the interest of the party at that level remains supreme.

Election 2016 is a make or break for the NPP, in the sense that, no party has suffered a third successive defeat since the inception of our fourth republican constitution. An electoral defeat for NPP in 2016 is therefore non-negotiable, convention-wise, and every effort must be made by every single member of the party to ensure a comprehensive electoral holocaust of NDC.

Enviable track-record

On the broader spectrum, the failure of NPP to win the 2016 election will be a great disservice to the good people of this nation, in that, the party has always demonstrated the capacity to deliver on its campaign promises, including other fruitful human-centered policies, not even captured in its written manifestos. Ghana today, has become a laughing stock in the eyes of the civilized world, because our state of affairs have been so badly managed to the point where we actually have had to go and lay prostrate, on the bare floor, before IMF just to secure a form of credibility for what is being erroneously termed as “HOME-GROWN” solutions.

Alcoholic Ghana

Effectively, Ghana, as at now, can be likened to a married man with kids, in a little village, whose 'akpeteshie-drinking' spree have completely dissipated his economic existence, and therefore has lost so much respect in his village, that, when he even need a piece of highly aromatic 'FANTE KAKO' on credit, his 'Ebusuapanyin' must accompany him to the market for him to be accorded a modicum of credibility. But as characteristic of these shameless NDC insipid propagandists, they can master the courage to sit on Radio/TV and defend such gargantuan failure. Ghana has now lost credibility on the international stage, all due to the monumental levels of unbridled corruption which has never been witnessed anywhere on this planet since creation.

The Akufo-Addo revolution

It is in the light of this that, I believe, the over-powering love for Nana Addo in our party and ultimate endorsement of his candidature is very much divine. NPP has the support strength of over 5million Ghanaians; and for this mass of people to willingly gravitate towards a single personality, show him so much love and top it up with a 94.9% endorsement in a competitive election, actually goes to cement the fact that, indeed, the good people of this nation truly consider him as someone with the competence, drive, patriotism, integrity and vision to steer the affairs of state in the right direction.

Naturally, the current open-demonstration of amazing of love for Nana Addo, as he traverses the country on campaign tours, is certainly not happening by chance, and neither is it by any form of orchestration. In life, it is characteristic of every human to naturally, and instinctively, gravitate towards a person or a place where he/she will be appreciated, loved, respected and encouraged to progress in life. And appearing on Thursday, 16th October, 2014 edition of 'Good Evening Ghana' on Metro-TV, Nana Addo was asked as to what is the secret behind the overwhelming expression of love for him at all levels of the party, and his response was “WHEN PEOPLE, OUT OF LOVE, DECIDE TO FOLLOW YOU, AS A LEADER, THEN, IT IS INCUMBENT ON YOU TO LET THEM APPRECIATE THE FACT THAT YOU VALUE THEM”.

The Akufo-Addo character

Personally, I am a living-testimony to Nana Addo's amazing warmth and readiness to always acknowledge your presence in a crowd, by calling you by the name for everybody around to appreciate the fact that he knows you. Nana Addo always calls me by my name whenever I walk into his office or home. He returns my calls whenever I try to reach him on phone but couldn't get through to him. For example, he was able to spot me in a thick crowd of mourners during the funeral of first Eastern Regional NPP chairman at the Koforidua Jackson Park.

Similarly, I was given a rare opportunity to actually be a member of his convoy to Hon Kennedy Ohene-Agyapong's father's funeral at Assin-Fosu. Even there, Nana Addo, while going around to greet the guests, actually called me by my name while I was busy chatting with some party members and my attention had to be drawn to the fact that Nana Addo was calling me.

As a matter of fact, the current nationwide ground-swell of love for Nana Addo which has resulted in his lightening overshowing of John Mahama in the ongoing electioneering campaign, ahead of 7th December,2016, is largely due to the man's UNMATCHED LEVEL OF HUMILITY, GENUINESS OF HEART, SINCERITY IN WHAT HE SAYS AND BELIEVES IN, THE VISION TO MAKE GHANA A BETTER PLACE AND UNQUENCHABLE DESIRE TO SEE GHANA PROSPER.

I would therefore like to take this opportunity to humbly encourage all party members to be focused, hardworking, dedicated and vigilant in our course of duty to unseating the incompetent John Mahama-led NDC government. Let us endeavor to, at all times, mirror the characteristic character characteristics of Nana Addo, and embrace one-another with brotherly love to enable us work in-tandem from the polling station level to the national level, in fulfilment of a noble duty ahead of us.

BY THE GRACE OF THE LORD ALMIGHTY, NPP WILL BE BACK!!!

Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei

Aide to Nana Ado Dankwa Akufo-Addo

The NPP Standard-bearer