What exactly is the NPP’s electioneering campaign message?

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

Monday, November 30, 2015

Folks, there is much coming from the NPP front to make me wonder whether the Akufo-Addo camp really knows how to do things to win the hearts and heads of the electorate.

I have said all this while that there is nothing to prove that Akufo-Addo has learnt any lesson with which to improve his politicking after losing Elections 2008 and 2012. Instead, he has succeeded in tearing apart his own party, weakening it more than expected. Such a divided house isn't even attractive for the mushroom political parties to team up with in unseating the NDC administration.

As if that is not enough, there is nothing coming from Akufo-Addo and his team to tell the electorate how they will solve the problems that they haven't ceased condemning President Mahama as "incompetent" to tackle. The barrage of condemnatory utterances is all they are bombarding the electorate with. Who will vote for such a party on the basis of such hollow condemnatory utterances as the following:

1. ... some journalists have been paid whopping sums of money by the John Mahama administration to keep their focus on the internal happenings of the NPP (Fraudie Blay). NO EVIDENCE GIVEN BY HIM FOR US TO KNOW WHICH JOURNALISTS HAVE BEEN SO BRIBED AND CORRUPTED. And Fraudie Blay claims to be a lawyer!!

2. ... the John Mahama-led National Democratic Congress government has set up a slush fund, whose sole purpose is to aid in the fomenting of trouble in the NPP, thereby damaging the party ahead of the 2016 election (Fraudie Blay). NO EVIDENCE GIVEN BY HIM FOR US TO KNOW HOW MUCH HAS BEEN SUNK INTO THIS SLUSH FUND, WHERE IT IS DEPOSITED, THE SIGNATORIES, AND ANYTHING ELSE. And Fraudie Blay claims to be a lawyer!!

3. ... government has sanctioned the formation of a crack team, supported by elements in the National Security set up, to make the job of attempting to damage the NPP a top priority (Fraudie Blay). NO EVIDENCE GIVEN BY HIM FOR US TO KNOW ANYTHING ELSE APART FROM HIS DANGEROUS ALLEGATION. And Fraudie Blay claims to be a lawyer!!

4. ... The infighting in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is not only blown out of proportion, but also planned and executed by forces outside the Danquah-Busia-Dombo family (Akufo-Addo). NO EVIDENCE GIVEN BY HIM FOR US TO KNOW ANYTHING ELSE APART FROM HIS EMPTY ALLEGATION.

Questions for Akufo-Addo: Was it external forces that made him bulldoze his way through to muscle other NPP Presidential aspirants out of contention so he could lead the NPP to Election 2016 (for the third time)? Was it external forces that made him set up his forces of destruction to clamp down on voices of dissension (including those of the Kufuor camp and other respected NPP voices of reason so he could have his way paved to lead the party)?

Was it the external forces that acid-bathed Alhaji Adams to create the congenial environment for him to boot out those party administrators legally put in office by the NPP's delegates? Was it external forces that propelled the emasculation of Paul Afoko? Was it ex

ternal forces that killed the NPP member (his alleged admirer) at Asawase?

Can Akufo-Addo tell us that it is external forces that are questioning his own integrity for all that he claims to be? I am more than confident that Akufo-Addo is lost!! He is still not able to come to terms with reality and cannot know why Ghanaians won't put him in office as their leader.

Francis Poku might have eaten back his own words (claiming that he didn't say anything of the sort published about his opinion on why it will be risky to elect Akufo-Addo as Ghana's President); but the harm to Akufo-Addo by whatever was gleaned out of the interview has already been done. Kofi Coomson isn't talking; but what he put out there in the public domain about Akufo-Addo still has its relevance.

I take issues with Akufo-Addo on all that has been happening at the NPP front thus far: Is it external forces that are making it difficult for him to show any acceptable leadership skill to keep the NPP united? Is it external forces that are making Fraudie Blay and Abankwa steal the NPP's funds to make Akufo-Addo look a dullard in their scheming?

And considering the manner in which he is behaving in the NPP camp, is there any assurance that he can do things more convincingly to keep Ghana united if the electorate should go for him? If for nothing at all, President Mahama has succeeded in cementing that bind of national unity. Under his watch, we haven't had any ethnic-based internecine warfare as happened under his predecessors. He has proved to be a unifier. Is that what Akufo-Addo is? Not so, at least, from what we already know about him.

Folks, there is much to say, but we will pause here to say that Ghana's problems are systemic, not caused by John Dramani Mahama but by people and circumstances preceding him. His manner of administration may have its own peculiarities or add to those problems, but he isn't o blame for it all as the NPP people are suggesting. How will the systemic problems be solved beyond removing Mahama from office? And who is to solve those problems?

Certainly, not the crop of NPP people baying all over the place. They haven't given us anything different from what we already have had from Mahama ---promises here and there. Of course, Mahama has made good some of the major promises, which is good for his standing. How about the Greeks coming with gifts at night (the Trojan Horse)?

The truth is that the electorate won't be moved by what is coming from the NPP camp. Akufo-Addo and his team have still not found their bearing to move where they can click. They are embittered for no good reason and will remain so till wallopped again. Poor souls.

To know these NPP people is to dislike their kind of sterile politics. President Mahama and his team aren't making as much progress as expected, but they can't be easily supplanted with an Akufo-Addo team that is even not sure of its own capabilities to solve pertinent problems.

I shall return…

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