NPP Should Norminate An Information Manager

THE NPP SHOULD NORMINATE AN INFORMATION MANAGER-NPP PRESIDENTIAL RACE PART 6.

It is increasingly becoming clear that between four and five people will eventually file their nomination for the December race to become the NPP’s flag bearer. . The rest will do the honourable thing and recoil back to their former positions, belated though. Their reasons may be two fold: -one is the issue of the fees and two is that they may think they have no chance to win the hearts of the Delegates.

Some few weeks ago more than two hundred people were contacted by phone. And the response was the endorsement of the following personalities; Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Nana Akuffo Addo, Messrs Addo Kufour, Osafo Marfo and Dan Botwe. It must be made clear that the majority of people contacted mentioned the above names and there was slight mention of Hon. Hackman and Hon. Alan Kyeremanten. Some of the respondents were in favour of the following as suitable for the Vice Presidential slot, Messrs; Addo Kufour, Papa Owusu Akomaeh, Alhaji Alhassan Yakubu, Dan Bowte, Alan Kyerematen, Osafo Marfo.


During the interaction with these people it became evident that their main concern was on how the NPP is managing it’s information flow and were dismayed that deficiencies had allowed the NDC to fill that vacuum by their splendid propaganda. Equally worth mentioning is the Electoral Commission’s repeated worries of money dominating our election process (the EC made the same concern in 1995&1999) and warned of its potential to destroy our young democracy. A timely warning by the EC and all this has its root in politicians’ inability to communicate more to the people. The fact of the matter is, when time is wasted and the electorates are not given more information and politician’s distance themselves from the electorates, their minds are polluted then money is used to win their votes. It really doesn’t make sense that a simple and basic strategy of linking the electorates with politicians is not being exploited.


Communication has been found by many political thinkers as a very good weapon to change the fortune of a political party. Mrs. Bannerman, President of the Library Association has equally expressed her dismay on the lack of information in the country and this to her is failing people to make an informed decisions. This is the more reason why the NPP should not take anything for granted. The Economist Intelligence Unit recently published that the 2008 general election will be too close to call and certainly a wake- up call to those who want to occupy the castle.


It is undisputed that when it comes to the propaganda warfare the NDC is far ahead and unless the NPP re-strategize the way they deal with the populace on information management, the 2008 election will be fought severely in spite of the massive developments under the NPP. Arguably, the Government has achieved a lot and it is only political toddlers who will not give credit to the government, unfortunately the message is not being sent to the electorate correctly and speedily.


That is the urgent reason why the NPP Delegates should scrutinize all the personalities who in addition to his other qualities is capable of letting information flow constantly to the people and thereby allow the electorates to be in constant touch with government.

It is really puzzling why the NDC is desperately bent on taking back power by all means. Seriously it is an unhealthy adventure that the NDC is embarking on. For to them their professionalism in the propaganda warfare should seriously be pursued. In a recent outburst by Messrs Tony Aidoo and Victor Smith (all close associates of Mr. Rawlings-Founder and Chief Fund Raiser for the NDC) they claimed that the developments in the country merit coups and to them the NPP government should be kicked out of power before the 2008 election.


Seriously, many people are asking the questions whether these people have any reasoning power, what actually is happening in the country that merit coups? Absolutely nothing. A challenge should be thrown to those people for a debate on what actually is happening in the country that warrant coups? There is no doubt that some unscrupulous people in the Public or Civil services in their quest to please the Rawlings camp are sending wrong information to the Rawlingses. Had Messrs Aidoo and Smith made their comments in some other parts of the world, those personalities would have been taken to court and made to explain their utterances. Frankly, it is only lunatics who will try to overthrow a constitutional government, never even under NDC Government


Admittedly, there are difficulties in the country, some caused by the government, others inevitable but all this do not in any way warrant coup mongering. At times I wonder whether such people have children and wives or even relatives. Ghanaians should shame such people. In the developed world, it is your policies and your party’s ability to make loud the shortcomings of a government that will entice the electorates to vote for you and not to embark on this devilish posture of coup. Which country had coup plotters done better; these satanic adventures have rather caused mayhem.


A few years back, the NDC wrote letters to so many world leaders complaining about the tactics of the ruling NPP government, seriously there was no need for that complaint and truly they were crying unnecessarily. NDC have been in opposition for just 6 years and are making noises all over the places as if Ghana is mortgaged to them and the castle is their divine property.


Prior to the 2000 general elections, Mr.Odoi Sykes (then National Chairman of NPP) said that if the NPP wins power, it would seek the help of the FBI to resolve the mystery of the serial killing of women in some parts of the country and bring the perpetrators to book. . The NDC propaganda machinery latched on this by telling Ghanaians that the NPP claimed of stopping the killings and that it was an indication the NPP had knowledge of the killings when in actual fact that was not precisely what Mr. Odoi Sykes said.

Again, in 2001 at University Of Ghana Campus, Mr. J.H. Mensah said that considering the corruption cases he was privy to, he was sure by the time the cases were finished the NDC would have collapsed. He immediately added that since the NPP believed in Multi-Party Democracy they would never do anything to destroy the NDC (his comments are taped).


The NDC with their usual modus operandi went to town to say that NPP had said they would do everything to make the NDC collapse hence the jailing of former NDC ministers. It is very annoying when no NPP official ever comes out to debunk such propaganda and thereby allowing the NDC to win the day. What NDC has forgotten is, which their own former Deputy Attorney General and a Vice-Presidential Candidate advised them that he doubted whether a government could manipulate or influence Judges. Therefore, if the Minister Of Justice and Attorney General, said that one had a case to answer in the court, one had lawyer(s) to argue one’s innocence in the court. So the propaganda that government is deliberately jailing former ministers or officials are crèche thinking, it is only those just from the moon who will be thinking that President Kufour will embark on such an agenda, he won’t even contemplate on it.


At a press conference to address the concerns of striking teachers, a journalist asked Hon. Osafo Marfo, then Minister of Education, what would happen if by the time Students were about to write their Exams the striking Teachers had not called off their strike? The Minister replied that since the Exams were West African joint exams, the best he could do was to call on retired Teachers, Pastors and Imams to supervise the Exam.


For many weeks the NDC polluted the minds of Ghanaians by saying that Hon. Osafo Marfo and his government had said that if the Teachers refused to go back to the classroom, he would instruct retired Teachers, Pastors, and Imams to be in the classroom invariably making nonsense of the Teachers strikes. Some Ghanaians lambasted the government for weeks and it took Mustapha Hamid (current spokesman for Nana Addo Campaign Team) to correct the wrong impression created by the NDC propaganda, no doubt, by then the damage had already been done.


At a durbar organised at Cape Coast, President Kufour categorically said that corruption started way back from the Adam and Eve generation and will take a collective effort to uproot it from society. The President was right, but the NDC went to town to say that the President had thrown his hands in despair on the fight against corruption. The President’s speech was recorded but unfortunately no NPP official had the guts to come out to set the records straight. It is really sickening considering the vast majority of the NPP officials whom you think have the capability to match the NDC propaganda warfare.

As President Kufour admitted recently at a meeting with the UK branch of the NPP, the NDC Stewarts do their propaganda superbly; now the overwhelming question is how to counter the NDC propaganda tactics? It is certainly not the style of the NPP to embark on that path but for sure there are numerous strategies to adopt. This call has become extremely necessary because there are credible indications that the 2008 election is going to be won on information flow verses propaganda. Certainly the party, which will be ahead in the information landscape, will definitely win the hearts of the undecided voters.


There are many things that are not being done correctly as far as communication to the people is concerned. The government would have gained a lot of credit if well before this energy crisis had surfaced, it had warned Ghanaians and mentally prepared them for the impending problem. And even during the crisis, the President would have gained a lot of goodwill and trust if he had gone on live TV to explain things to Ghanaians and plead with them to be patient while a solution is being found to the problem. Government’s spokesmen will try to explain matters but the impact will not be felt much as that of the President of the Nation broadcasting to the whole Nation about the problem.


Since the NPP came to power the President had on many occasions expressed his discomfort about how the people are being informed about government issues. This has largely, I believe, may have necessitated changes of personalities in the Information Ministry but still not much had been achieved. I can confidently say that the problem is not the Ministers that have occupied the Information Ministry but the single cause is the absence of the ‘umbilical cord’ ideals (the writer is the inventor of the umbilical cord philosophy). Recently an NPP activist from Brong Ahafo lamented about the effort he had made to suggest a strategy to one of the aspirants and how it was not considered. Many people have equally expressed dismay about the refusal of some politicians to take strategic advice. They should perhaps listen to Professor Stephen Addae, the outgoing President of CIMG, when he admonished marketers to help package politicians. Will they take it?


The undeniable reality is for the NPP delegates to strive to nominate an individual who has shown a clear ability to put the structures right so that information could flow to Ghanaians. This December Conference offers a renewed opportunity for the Party Delegates to elect a personality who will uphold the party’s strengths, ingenuity and vitality of freedom to all Ghanaians and not to be diverted by the NDC’s deception, demagoguery and manipulation of events.


Nevertheless, all efforts must be made to address some of the genuine worries of the NDC and other parties. We are a Nation with one destiny and no party should consciously try to destroy the other.