Nana’s V/R overtures good move – Lecturer

Opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo’s attempt to project a positive image of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to woo the people of the Volta Region to vote for him and the party in November’s presidential and legislative polls has been described as “strategically good” by a lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Mohammed Abass.

The Danquah-Busia-Dombo party has consistently, since elections in 1992 to usher in the fourth republic, recorded its worst performance in national polls in the Volta Region. The NPP has on several occasions fought the perception that it is an Akan-oriented party. It has also been parrying accusations that it is biased against Ewes, a perception recently reinforced by former Transport Minister Dzifa Attivor, who, at an NDC rally in the Ketu South Constituency in April, told supporters to refrain from voting the NPP back into power, as it would jail her just as an earlier NPP administration of ex-President Kufuor did to some former NDC officials who served in the Rawlings government.

But Mr Akufo-Addo, who just ended a four-day tour of the Volta Region, assured the electorate they had “nothing to fear” voting him into power, asking them not to give in to the propaganda against him and his party, of woe befalling Voltarians in the event of his ascension to the highest office of the land.

Mr. Abass, speaking on Accra News on Saturday, May 21, 2016, said it was a good move for Mr. Akufo-Addo to first clear the misconception of the people of the Volta Region about the NPP, as he canvasses for their votes in the 2016 elections and beyond. He said there were many supporters of the NDC in the region, who remained dissatisfied with the current government after more than two decades of loyalty to the NDC.

According to him, Ghana’s politics should have been issues-based so the electorate would assess the campaign messages of aspirants to know what each can and will do for the country in such areas as employment and management of the economy.

“But the reality is that our politics is not so. It seems we do not examine the issues, but personalities… So, what Nana is saying, which some interpret as begging [for votes] is actually not so. Rather, he is addressing their perception towards NPP generally and Nana,” Mr. Abass explained.

However, in his view, perceptions do not arise from nothing, but are formed from past experiences; hence, the comments and actions of some officials of the NPP, which feed into that notion will have to be addressed by Mr. Akufo-Addo when they arise. He advised the three-time presidential aspirant to “come out and condemn” any comments with ethnocentric undertones, particularly those spiteful of Ewes, to send a signal of his sincerity to attract more Volta votes.