Towards NPP Victory On December, 28th, 2008

December 28th is not too far from now and it is important to adopt a more aggressive approach in our campaign, to reach a victorious end. Some of the more effective methods that the campaign should adopt include the following.

• We maintain strongholds in the Eastern and Ashanti Regions and it is a good idea the campaign has sent Hon. Alan Kyeremateng and Hon. Osafo Marfo to the Ashanti and Eastern Regions respectively to increase our strength in these two regions. However, we should not ignore the other regions. We can change minds in these other regions including even the Volta Region. The campaign must continue in all regions as was done before December 7th, but with a more aggressive approach. It would be very helpful to assign Hon. Jake Obetseby Lamptey to increase our strength in the Greater Accra Region. The campaign should dispatch NPP personalities of equal standing to the other regions as well.

• The district chief executives should be asked to go back to their respect districts to campaign more aggressively to win more votes on December 8th. Simultaneously as the district chief executives campaign in their respective districts, Nana should campaign more aggressively at the national level. Issues such as I have raised in this writing, should be part of the campaign slogans both at the district and national levels.

• The Church constitutes a very effective media for propagating the campaign messages and the NPP campaign must use it. The campaign must get the Church leadership to preach our campaign message favorably and get the members to vote for the NPP.

• A more effective approach should be used for the Western Region. Hon. Paa Kwesi Nduom operated in the NPP cabinet. This offered him the clout with which he won the CPP flagbearership. Now he has bowed out of the race. It would be very helpful for President Kuffuor to ask Hon. Nduom to endorse Nana Akkufo-Addo and the NPP and to ask his supporters to vote for the NPP.

• To establish a Rapid Response Team within the campaign which would refute immediately all negative allegations and comments peddled by the NDC against Nana and NPP and to put out immediately equally negative comments about our opponents. There is a danger in delaying our responses to such negative comments by the NDC. Any significant time lapses between our response and those negative comments from our opponents may mislead the public to perceive the comments as true.

• The media has reported fraudulent practices perpetrated by the NDC during the voting exercise on December 7th, 2008. It is very important that Nana’s campaign takes very effective steps to stop the NDC from replicating those fraudulent practices on December 28th. The reported fraudulent practices by NDC are as follows.

1. A few days back, Ghanaweb.com reported that an NPP MP in Volta region plans to challenge the results of the presidential elections in the Volta region because vote counts reported for the NDC from the region were illegally inflated. This has been the practice in the Volta region during other presidential elections in the past. The NPP must pursue very aggressive measures to stop the Volta Region from repeating this fraud on December 28th.

2. On December 8th, Ghanaweb.com reported that on Sunday, December 7th, after casting her vote, Agyeman Konadu Rawlings was moving from polling station to polling station in Accra. What was she doing? This is not an ordinary person, but an individual within the top ranks of the so called NDC party. Given their disregard for the rule of law and craftiness, Agyeman Konadu Rawlings and her NDC compatriots could have been carrying out fraudulent activities at the Accra voting stations for example voter intimidation, bribery of voting supervisors etc, etc. This possibly makes the Greater Accra results suspect. The NPP must take very aggressive steps to stop the NDC from repeating this apparent voting fraud in the Greater Accra Region on December 28th, 2008.

3. There was a report in Ghanaweb.com yesterday, in which able bodied men of voting age had fled Akwatia in the Eastern Region under threat of a police swoop and arrest as a result these men exercising their lawful rights to vote. Although the NPP is currently in power and has control over law enforcement, several factors make this incident suspect and suggest the possibility of an NDC voter intimidation and lawlessness. First, Akwatia is one of the strongest holds of NPP. Second, the Ghanaweb.com report explained that this same incident took place at Akwatia, during the 1992 presidential elections. Obviously, the NDC has identified Akwatia as an NPP stronghold and it wants to stop voters of the town from lawfully exercising their votes. The NPP must protect the citizens of Akwatia so that they can stay in town and exercise their lawful votes.

• The NPP has let Atta-Mills off the hook to a very great extent. Nana’s campaign must put Atta-Mills on the spot before the Ghanaian voter, on matters of policy. Here are important policy questions that Nana’s campaign should ask Atta-Mills and thereby put him on the spot. These questions must be important slogans in Nana’s campaign.

1. If Atta-Mills claims that he has ideas that can help Ghana, why could he not use his so called good ideas to help the nation but instead he watched Rawlings sink the country’s economy, education and infrastructure down? Atta-Mills had his chance and he could not deliver and so they were voted out of office in 2000.

2. In Atta-Mills’ tenure as vice president, the economy of the world was better and good economic and development policies could have been executed much more easily. However, he could not use his ideas to better the country. To what extent can he convince the Ghanaian that now he has good ideas that can develop the country, at the current time when because of recession in the US, the whole world is facing economic difficulties? The global economic difficulties were caused by the rise in the world oil prices over which the NPP has no control. In spite of the global economic setbacks, the NPP has been performing extremely well which has been recognized and rewarded at various corners of the globe. Currently, global oil prices are going down and so there are better times ahead.

3. JJ Rawlings is a nation wrecker and a divisive leader who hates free enterprise. JJ Rawlings showed this destructive side of him when he killed, maimed and seized the assets of hardworking Ghanaians during his AFRC and PNDC rules. Rawlings carried out these atrocities along tribal lines, against non-Ewes. We have seen free enterprise transform the economies of many countries in recent years and every nation is tapping into it. Even in his NDC administration, which he co-run with Atta-Mills, Rawlings was still perpetrating this destruction and divisive rule against Ghanaians. Atta-Mills did not implement any ideas to stop Rawlings’ campaign of destruction because Atta-Mills has no such ideas. Therefore, to what extent can Atta-Mills assure the Ghanaian that he has ideas that can help Ghana, when in the past he proved beyond any doubt that he has no such ideas?

4. Atta-Mills has said in the past that he will consult with Rawlings 24/7. To what extent can he convince the Ghanaian that if he became president, his reign would not be a replication of the unpopular Rawlings’ administration?

• The campaign should very strongly draw on the enormous achievements of the NPP namely, education reforms, respect for human rights, the creation of peaceful co-existence among the various tribes in Ghana, massive infrastructural development, re-introduction of the mass transit system, heavy investment in oil exploration for Ghana which is paying dividends at the moment, recognition of NPP’s good governance by very powerful and matured democracies at all corners of the globe. The list of NPP achievements is too long for me to list here.

• The campaign should throw certain suggestive and very important questions to the Ghanaian voter. I have listed some of these questions below. These questions should be part of the campaign slogans both at the national and district levels.

1. Does the Ghanaian want to go back and live again under the Rawlings reign of terror and lawlessness, in which a person could literally disappear without a trace because of his/her political inclination or accomplishments in life, all perpetrated against him/her along tribal lines? A vote for Atta-Mills would guarantee this condition.

2. Do teachers and parents of Ghana want a return to an administration that cares less about the deplorable conditions of service for teachers, poor student performance or infrastructural development for the school system? Do teachers and parents want an administration that demonstrates lawlessness and rogue culture as role models for students and the youth of the country to copy? Do teachers and parents want their kids not to have classroom blocks but sit under trees in the open sun for class instructions, when the government in power spends massively to keep a running payroll for militia men and street thugs recruited as commandos and doles out monumental amounts of monies to non-Ghanaians outside Ghana, instead of building classroom blocks for the nation? A vote for Atta-Mills would guarantee these conditions.

3. Have the people of the Central Region forgotten so soon, when a hotel built by one of their own, Sir Sam Jonah, with very heavy financial investment, was lawlessly demolished by JJ Rawlings, for no apparent reason? Although Atta-Mills is from the Central region, Rawlings and his NDC/Ewe cohorts are just using Atta-Mills in an attempt to capture power knowing very well that they would stand no chance to run on their own record of notoriety and lawlessness. If Atta-Mills were to win, they would eventually wrestle power from Atta-Mills

4. Have the people of the Central Region forgotten so soon when one of their own, the late Vice President Ackaah, was disrespectfully assaulted in public by JJ Rawlings?

5. Have the people of the Central Region forgotten so soon the unlawful treatment suffered by one of their own, Kofi Baako, in the hands of JJ Rawlings and his wife?

Onipa Ba