The Professor’s “Dirty Dozen”

In today’s Ghana where politics often has movie analogies like “Professor Doolittle”, “Atta Mortuary Man” and so on, has it occurred to NPP and its assigns that Professor Mills’ mastery of attrition is real and is slowly asphyxiating an NPP opposition that had a mountain to climb to win 2012 regardless?

The President has simply taken a page out of the Lee Atwater manual of subterfuge politics by calling on a dozen fiercely loyal and ideologically primed lieutenants to match the NPP on the communication battlefield and the results hold true for all to see.

Long gone are the days when the NPP seemed to own the subtle art of political punditry.

Long gone are the days when the Gabby Otchere Darko led media machine of the NPP held sway over the airwaves.

Long gone are the days when the government apparatus cowered in a corner at the slightest sound of the thundering hooves of the NPP propaganda.

The wily old Prof has deployed a platoon of Boerboels and Doberman Pinschers that are wreaking mayhem and havoc on the campaign of the NPP and its flag bearer Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo. These “dirty dozen” attack dogs have seized control of the airwaves and political talk shows that matter and are churning out vitriol with the potency of an asp, whilst Nana Addo and his campaign look on helplessly. With just over a year left for the 2012 elections, these young Oppresniks have just about made it impossible for the NPP campaign to gather any steam.

So the question is how did the Prof manage to hem the NPP in so morbidly? Answer: He sent his boys to do the job his men couldn’t do. The “dirty dozen” are highly intelligent and deceptively knowledgeable young people who have done copious amounts of research on the NPP flag bearer Nana Akuffo Addo especially, researched the historical antecedents of the Danquah - Busia tradition and have found useable information and saleable points that the NPP would rather the public did not know and are hitting home with the precision of a tomahawk missile.

No one can say that the likes of Koku Anyidoho, Sammy Okudzeto, Baba Jamal, Edward Omane Boamah, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, Kwadwo Twum Boafo, Peter Boamah Otokunor, Benjamin Akyena Brentuo, John Jinapor, Fred Agbenyo, Kobby Fiagbe and Stan Dogbe who have anchored the NDC communication team out of the doldrums into the high octane offensive unit do not have a mandate. Their mandate has come from the highest echelons of the presidency. They have managed to put clear daylight between the Prof and his main challenger in the eyes of the public and it would now seem like Nana Akuffo Addo is running for president against the likes of Koku Anyidoho and Kwadwo Twum Boafo and not Professor Mills. They have succeeded in discrediting all the appendages and proxies that the NPP used as a haven to further their political agenda.

First they took on the radio stations and went to play on the NPP’s turf such as Peace FM’s Kokrokoo morning show, they took on the hitherto heavily one sided Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV, they took on the think tanks like the I.E.A and IMANI that had tried to pass themselves off as doling objective policy analysis, they took on civil society groups and sections of the pastoral community that would seem to only have selective criticism patterns and have by and large succeeded in dismantling their credibility. They have now closed the loop by getting their agenda out on a varied selection of newspapers, which coagulate similar stories to make it very hard to ignore. Make no mistake, these young men do not mind being on a panel discussion in places as hostile as the Kennedy Agyepong owned Oman FM and being in a rhetorical majority of one. The precision with which they have unhinged the NPP presidential campaign should at the very least concern the NPP top brass if they are already not alarmed.

Sadly the NPP have not been able to innovate and respond to this erosion of their political space and with the campaign season just about to swing into full motion, it will be interesting to see how they surmount what the NDC has already telegraphed would be a campaigned based on one issue only : Nana Akuffo Addo’s character. The incessant revelations about Nana Addo’s drug use, coupled with his lack of discretion in some of his remarks have not helped him. Statements like “All Die be Die”, “At All Costs”, “Yen Akanfuo” have made an already jittery electorate highly apprehensive of the man Nana Akuffo Addo and how he will conduct himself, if they should vote for him. Unless the NPP do something about this downhill slide, one doesn’t need to be a brain surgeon to figure out that the president will win a crushing victory in December 2012, not necessarily because of how well the NDC is doing, but how much Professor Mills’ dirty dozen sentries have totally shattered the image of his challenger in such a way that it would be difficult for any objective voter to cast a ballot for Nana Addo.

Kwame Opoku Adiyiah

Virginia, USA.