Election 2020 Lessons Should Guide Choice Of 2024 Office Seekers

With former President John Mahama still intent on running for the presidency again, and with usually relaxed former Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor suddenly finding vim to tread where most strong personalities in the National Democratic Congress fear to tread, 2024 can be expected to be certainly ‘titanic’.

Again, with NDC heavyweights like Ekwow Spio-Garbrah coming out openly to support the ticket of the former Finance Minister, one may conclude that there is a very strong spirit of determination among interest groups in the party to shatter any dream on the part of the governing New Patriotic Party to sustain power, and have a party over their ‘Break the 8’ mantra.

 

 

Drowning man

The tricky element in all that is that John Mahama is desperate, having lost twice on the trot, after a disputed victory in 2012. In 2020, he wiggled out of that embarrassing 2016 defeat, and sought to prove a point by the huge performance of his parliamentary team.

While over 500,000 votes is still a long shot by the calculator of Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, the NDC’s ability to recover over 50 seats and do some magic in the Ashanti Region appears to offer Mahama and the NDC hope for a 2024 victory.

As the NPP itself would admit, ‘Breaking the 8’ is not as salacious a slogan as ‘Aseεhɔ’ in 2000; nor is it quality branding for 2024, with the real threats of COVID-19 and Russian-Ukraine conflict still refusing to make sense in the ears of an electorate that has to be ‘dribbled’ for them to pay basic tax.

 

 

 

 

Research

Thankfully, the NDC, together with its sponsored media propaganda that MoMo agents and MoMo businesses would collapse have proven to be garbage.

Indeed, when Daily Statesman last checked, it saw no MoMo agent having closed shop from Kwame Nkrumah Circle to La town. Checks with their marketing department didn’t also prove anything that indicated that because of MoMo tax, fewer people were coming to register as MoMo agents.

Dealing with the NDC and its mischief propaganda machine, therefore, requires a deliberate effort at generating a research machinery that must, for instance, not repeat what the party and Ghana were treated to in Fomena, or assess candidates from the grassroots and through traditional or religious authorities.

It is evident that when a party gets its research wrong, it may support wrong candidates and fund wrong programmes.

 

 

 

 

Agenda

Most decent Ghanaians, however, believe it is refreshing that the E-Levy impasse, for instance, is dying where it was nurtured, along with other mischief political excesses.

However, the Daily Statesman is convinced that it would still be in the interest of the nation and party, if the prospective NPP leadership would list and deal with all the thorny issues that offer the NDC space and opportunity to shoot their mouths.

As we may agree, that list would include galamsey, recurrent flooding and the need to improve roads in the countryside to allow for access to farm gates in improving the food security situation.

With the government having attracted enough credibility and commendation, resulting in enhanced partnerships, the Daily Statesman also believes that government living out its mandate in the Agenda 111 will be surest insurance against any NDC propaganda for 2024.

The search, therefore, for that winning team is now. With most delegates committed to change in a couple of the top slots, they should diligently assess candidates in picking a total team to deliver a total victory in 2024 to sustain the nation’s industrialisation agenda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source:  Daily statesman