The Battle Cry!

The NPP went to the polls successfully and has again demonstrated its true democratic credentials emerging with a landslide and a landmark victory for Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.

On Saturday, I was proud of this party and happy for the fact that the man I believed could best represent our Party was given a massive endorsements by around 83,000 party executives stretching all over this beautiful country. It was particularly amusing because Nana Addo aside winning massively, also won every single region which means that his popularity at least within the party is not limited but covers the entirety of this country.

But whatever happened on Saturday is in the past and for me the celebrations should end now, I didn’t even celebrate because I don’t see reason in celebrating, when you defeat a brother at a contest! This is by no way disregarding the victory of Nana Addo on Saturday but refocusing minds on the reality that the NPP is now faced with the real issue of winning the 2012 elections.

To recapture power, we need to be at our strongest! We need to have a united objective and a united focus and be prepared to dedicate ourselves to the singular objective of winning power in 2012.

To recapture power, the party must work on its internal divisions (which plague every party) and ensure that all sections of the Party understand the importance of winning in 2012 and what to do to ensure victory as well as having the fairground to contribute to the victory.

Yes Nana Addo won BUT as it is obvious, the campaign is an NPP campaign! Nana Addo won a landslide unprecedented in the history of the NPP but on the side of Alan Kyeremateng, Isaac Osei, Frimpong Boateng and Rev. Koduah are resources, human and material the NPP cannot ignore and resources which must be utilized for victory! Sitting where I am sitting for example, it is my rightful opinion that men such as Kwabena Agyepong, Maxwell Kofi Jumah, Dr. Richard Anane, Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani etc. who were all for Alan K, need to be given useful roles because in them lies tremendous experience and knowledge which would be ignored to the disadvantage of the NPP. They should be made to help and they should be willing out of their free will to help!

However, it would be very unrealistic for anyone to expect Nana Addo to dump his whole campaign team for a totally new team, it does not happen anywhere especially not when this team has been able to achieve the sort of result achieved. What needs to be done is to combine all the talents, experiences and strengths in a team where no one would feel superior and no one inferior! A team where all members would feel themselves equal. A team solely motivated by the objective of rescuing Ghana from the shackles of bad governance and mediocrity. A result oriented and well motivated team comprising all members of the NPP and sympathizers as well as all Ghanaians terribly disappointed in the NDC is what we need.

In facing up to 2012, we need to face up to ourselves, our actions and inactions especially while in government and even now we are in opposition. It would be deceitful to think or even suggest that we run a perfect administration, that smacks of arrogance and deceit. As members of the NPP we need to readily accept that all did not go well when we were in power.

However, we need to tell our story! We need to tell the story of the achievements we chalked in eight years and tell the promise of how we hope to redeem Ghana unto a prosperous path; unto the path of development in freedom!

We need to tell the story of the country we met in 2001 and the country we left in 2009 and the country we have now! We need to tell the story of how we executed our agenda in eight years compared to how the P(NDC) executed and is executing its agenda in the over 20 years it has had in government.

We need to tell the story of our ideology and how our ideology, Liberal Democracy, offers the best hope for a free people; we need to tell our story and not allow our story to be told for us! If they paint a bad picture of Liberal Democracy, we should remove it and paint the real picture of it! If they paint a bad picture of our administration from 2001 to 2009, we should pull it down and paint the true picture including the crocked edges we couldn’t straighten and the spots we left unpainted but I have no a single doubt that our true picture we be more beautiful than the true picture of either the NDC without a P or the one with the P; more beautiful than the picture of the NDC under Rawlings and the NDC under Mills! More beautiful than any picture the NDC can ever dream of painting!

We need to also tell the story of how lost the NDC is in whatever it sees as its ideology and how disastrous the NDC has been in power from 1981 till 2012!

We need to be ready for battle and go for battle! We need to be humble and truthful! Everyone needs to be humble and truthful either in our intra party dealings or in our dealings with those we need to win in 2012!

It is going to be a battle for the soul of this country! It is not going to be a battle of guns and B-52 bombers a battle of ideas, brains, records and communication! Even if it comes to guns, we should be ready for it!

It is going to be a battle to redeem our dear country from misrule and confused leadership! It would be a battle to put our dear country back at the forefront of leading a free and democratic Africa! It would be a battle of reinstating our country unto the path of progress! A path of empowering our private sector, a path of self-empowerment! It would be a battle to secure and entrench Democracy and our God-given rights without fear of causing fear and panic! It would be a battle to ensure that for once, we are able to make good use of a rich resource (oil) breaking from the mismanagement of our other resources like Gold and breaking from the dangerous path our oil has already been put on!

It would be a battle to reduce the hardships of Ghanaians and a battle to ensure that the unborn generations are proud as Ghanaians unlike most of my generation! A battle to ensure that Ghanaians break free of the Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Americans, etc and are made capable of handling their own issues like housing and resource generation!

It would be a battle which needs to be waged and won! A battle which must be won!

In the Green and Black corner are our opponents, the NDC! In the NDC is a party that was formed out of dictatorship and the overthrow of a democratically elected government. In the NDC is a party has the record of supervising the worst era of human rights and protection of individual freedoms in our nations history! In the NDC is a party whose founder and until recently leader proclaims widely his disgust for democracy! In the NDC is a party which has as its bed fellow intimidation, violence and atrocious lies. In the NDC is a party which oversaw till date, Ghana’s worst period of corruption, misapplication and misuse of state funds; something it is repeating since it re assumed power in 2009! In the NDC is a party which thrives on divisionism, tribalism and pettiness! In the NDC is a party which is not in the least ready to hand over power and a party which has given every indication to twist arms and break bones to win the 2012 elections (apologies to Nii Lantey vanderpuje). In the NDC is a party which began thinking about winning the 2012 elections even before it was sworn in on January 7th 2009.

So our work is really cut out for us! In the NDC is a party bent on hanging on to power whatever the consequences!

But in the NDC is also a party we know how to defeat! In 2000 with the most brutal leader in Ghana’s history still in power, we whipped the NDC like no one’s business when no one really expected us to do so! In the face of intimidation, abuse of incumbency, violence, abuse of state resources amongst widespread corruption, we still managed to humiliate the NDC in 2000; in both the first round and second rounds even after they claimed that some 2million supporters of their party who didn’t vote in the first round would be recalled to turn the tide in second round.

We repeated the dosage in 2004! So, Yes We can! In their most likely candidate (Prof. Mills) is one who holds the worst political record in Ghana’s history! With his record currently standing at five elections, four defeats and a single victory with that victory coming by way of a split decision. So the NDC is very beatable and we would beat them.

But, we can only beat them if we are strong in mind, strong in will, strong in strategy and strong in numbers! Victory in 2012 would not be won at the National Headquarters, It would not be won at Nana Addo’s campaign office, it would not be won at the Electoral Commission headquarters! No!

Victory in 2012 would be won in our houses; it would be won in the trotros and taxis; it would be won in our offices! Victory in 2012 would be won in the barbering shops and salons, it would be won chop bars and restaurants! Victory in 2012 would be won at the drinking spots and car washing bays! It would be won in the farms, on the canoes, at the marketplaces, and at the sports stadiums. Victory would be won on the radio and on TV; Victory in 2012 would be won at the centres where we watch the Premiership, the La Liga, the Italian Serie A, the Champions League, the Europa Cup and where we would watch the 2012 African Cup of Nations, the 2012 European Cup, the 2011 Under – 17 African cup and World Cup as well as the 2011 Under-20 African and World Cup! Am I overstretching it? Well it would also be won in the churches, in the mosques, in the classrooms and even in the clinics and hospitals! And oh yes! Victory would be won here on facebook, it would be won on Ghanaweb, Myjoyonline, Peacefmonline, citifmonline, etc. etc. as well as Twitter, My space , Hi5 etc.

Finally, victory would be won at the Polling Stations!

Surely, Nana Addo, Jake, JAK etc. cannot be at all these places! Victory would be won and must be won by you and me! We must all be ready and start waging the battle from now and at all the places mentioned and all places where there is the need for the battle to be waged!

I have taken my gauntlet! What about you? We don’t have time! The time to act is now! We need minds, we need strategies, we need actions! We need to do everything to win and win we must! Four years of Ghana under NDC would be disastrous and dangerous for our country! If you are a member of the NPP or a sympathizer and you sit on the fence, you are not leaving our strength at par, you are weakening us and you might just be causing us defeat! It is time to wage the contest of our lives! No time to delay!

At least now, we have a leader, a very capable leader as such! A leader who knows what he is about! A visionary leader who knows how to empower Ghanaians and how to ensure that Ghanaians take the commanding heights of our nation! A leader who is backed by capable brains in me and you! A leader supported by a very proven ideology! A leader determined to act to address the myriad of problems that affect us as a nation! A leader who is bold and not afraid to take action! We have a leader we can trust and a leader we can sell! A leader who is very capable of leading this nation! A leader who is far capable and competent than the disaster we have now!

The battle cry has sounded!

By boadu kwabena

Boadukwabena@gmail.com