By Sule Salifu Azaa-Namal
There have been several complains from other party faithful in Binduri regarding the NDC’ dwindling chances of winning back the parliamentary seat from the NPP mainly due to the fact that some faithful party members have been suspended based on very suspicious and unconfirmed allegations leveled against them mainly by their opponents.
I have since been wondering and having sleepless nights as to why the electoral fortunes of our great party NDC is on the decline while that of the NPP is on the rise? I believe others who wear the same glasses with me are equally worried about this developing trend. This canker is eating deep into the fibers of our dear party and if nothing is done swiftly, it will lead us into a ditch in the near future as a party. It is time for everybody who sees this as a threat to us and also have the party at heart to put their hands on deck and let us find the causes and ways to remedy this canker. The table below compares our parliamentary elections results over the years for your study.
YEAR 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
NDC 10,704 12,174 9,797 8357 16,088 15,191 14,562
NPP 2,654 2,937 6,216 9,103 7,543 9,577 15,016
It is clear on the table that our opponents had their votes reduced only in 2012 as compared to that of ours. In 2020, we dropped by 12.7% and they gained by 11.1%. We had our votes increased in 2000 and 2012. I see this trend as a worry if others don’t see same.
I have been asking myself these questions without getting assured answers but speculations. Where are we getting it wrong? Could it be from any of these or all?
DISUNITY IN THE PARTY AFTER EVERY CONSTITUENCY EXECUTIVES ELECTIONS AND PARLIAMENTARY PRIMARIES: My analysis of this issues though without figures to back this claim shows that Usually attempts to unite the party after internal elections have not been “diligently handled” as captured in the Upper East disciplinary committee that suspended some party members. More especially when the winner lacks the needed political maturity, diplomacy and political language.
Usually the winners want to go on and win without involving the losers, for reasons best known to them. They usually presume the task ahead will be an easy one and so they can win alone to even spite their opponents some more. They will only come back to their sense after a defeat and then start to blame the people they didn’t see relevant to bring on board. A case in point is where prior to the 2020 parliamentary elections Mr. Ben Ndego told the parliamentary candidate as captured in page 78 of the committee report that “the intransigence from him will cost his political career and when that happens, he should not blame anyone for his afflictions”. Indeed, they only come back to their senses only after a loss.
We have to sit down as a party after every internal contest and see how to bring back unity and bring everyone on board for effective party campaign and victory. Everyone in the party is very important for our victory.
POOR CAMPAIGN MESSAGES AND UNFULFILLMENT OF SOME PROMISES: I see this as one of the causes in reduction in our votes in every election. Comparing our campaign message and that of the NPP in the 2020 election is a clear indication of what am alluding to. What was our campaign message to match that of their borehole drilling machine for the constituents? What of his campaign of supporting farmers especially those doing dry season farming? In case where we even promise during campaigns, the question Is, do we always fulfill them when given the opportunity? Your response to this question may not be far from mine. People are becoming more discerning nowadays and we have to move away from using issues like Bawku conflict or certificates of our candidate as our main campaign message. What people want to hear now in politics is butter and bread issues and nothing less. Let us always have a team that will sit with the parliamentary candidate, plan and come out with an enticing campaign message. And with this, I believe we will win back the interest of the electorates.
NEGLECT OF PARTY FOOT SOLDIERS: This is another area of worry we have to look at as a party. It is always common to hear our leaders both at national and constituency level admonishing people to do sacrificial work to help the party capture power. After agreeing with their plea and doing the needful, the party don’t always think of these foot soldiers again. What they think of is themselves and their cronies. How many of our foot soldiers had recruitment into our security services since the 1996 up to date by our party? How many youths of our party has been given scholarship by our party to further their education? How many youth groups have been given contract by our party? Are we saying that there are no recruitments, scholarships, awarding of contracts etc. in Ghana when NDC is in power? The sad aspect of it all is our leaders asking for qualifications before employing party boys into the youth employment program when our opponents don’t do that. A friend in NPP who has not even completed JHS has been employed into the youth employment program as a police officers. Why are we so wicked to ourselves? The earlier we think of how to handle our foot soldiers, the better it will be for us all.
LACK OF SOCIAL INTERVENTIONS ON THE SIDE OF OUR MPS AND OTHER GOVERNMENT APPOINTEES: It is evident that our MPs and other government appointees of our constituency do less or no social interventions for our constituents. We are all seeing what our opponents are doing. Fertilizer for farmers, loans for people before elections and even after elections. Giving of GHS1000.00 to each of the village susu savings groups etc. The first time we tried giving loans to people was in 20l6 and after elections, nothing was heard of it again. We should not as a party rely only on only our presidential candidate or government announced social interventions policies during campaigns. We need to also think on other social interventions policies that are capable of effecting a change in our people lives.
FEW FAMILIES OR INDIVIDUALS HIJACKING AND BENEFITING FROM THE PARTY: Just like in my earlier statement, very soon we will be hearing let us sacrifice and work and bring the party into power from our leaders at the national, regional and the constituency levels. When the sacrifice is done and we get power, we forget that it was many hands that did the pushing for the party to succeed. No one in our party can proof me wrong on this my cry. Look at the nature in which contracts are awarded by the party. Look at the nature in which the school feeding contracts were awarded. I was so sad and disappointed as a party member in 2016 on the day of our campaign launch at Aniisi when every polling station were given 5 coupons to take GHS5. 00 fuel at Maxx energy and someone who was enjoying the school feeding contract on her 7th year was angry that she was not given a coupon. A lot see this attitude from our leader as greed and see no reason why many should suffer for few to benefit?
PARTY BECOMING UNATTRACTIVE TO THE YOUTH: One of the main complains I always received whenever I try winning the youth interest to our party is always that; our party is been occupied by people they considered to be ” mugabes”. They always have the feeling that they won’t be listened to by these “mugabes”. Another area of their worry is our party lacking pro- youth policies. They always want to know the number of youth our party have helped or empowered over the years. It is clear that the youth have the love for NPP than NDC. It is clearly written in all the corners in our constituency that NPP is for youth and NDC is for aged. It is time we device strategies to help win the hearts of the youth the better for the party in years to come.
FAILURE IN DEVELOPING THE HUMAN RESOURCE OF THE PARTY: When it comes to building of human resources of party members, we can’t compare ourselves to our opponents. A lot of us can attest to this. They award scholarships and sponsor their members to go for further studies. They get their people employed. They recruit their members into our security services. They also always organized comprehensive IT training for those who are supposed to monitor and collate election results. Not only the IT training, but the quality of the materials used. I was very sad, disappointed and dumfounded as a party member in 2018 during the limited voter registration exercise in the EC office. Our party was represented by people who can’t read nor write as agents. The materials that they had with them were a pen and an exercise book with a picture of Hon Kuganab the MP then on its cover. I stood and ask myself if we are ready for power in 2020 elections as a party. During my several days of sending people there and getting guarantors for them to be registered, I only met our organizer as a party member who came there to see how things were going. This our attitude as a party even grew up to the national level if not, what happened election 2020 in the EC strong room wouldn’t have happened. Let us try to build the human resource of our members if indeed we want to remain relevant and a better option for the electorates.
Look how Poorly we performed against the NPP in 2020 parliamentary elections, I do not want to be a prophet of doom but it’s evident everywhere in Binduri that its even looking very bad now and if we do not sit up and work towards real unity in the party we will be heading for the ditches and a bigger disgrace awaits us in the 2024 parliamentary elections. BRING BACK OUR SUSPENDED COMRADES, WE NEED UNITY IN BINDURI
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