Is The Elephant Finding Its Way Home?

Feature Article by Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

Is the elephant on its way home after being chased into the bush?

I can sympathize with those who feel sad about the sudden departure of characters like Sir John and Jake form the leadership of the NPP. The type of comedy they offered was rare. See: Sir John weeps over loss; says delegates are wicked, General News of Tuesday, 15 April 2014. The only problem is that this is not a comedy. In a nation whose capital alone boasts of 90,000 homeless children, we can ill-afford comedians on our political landscape.

I felicitate the delegates of the NPP, and the NPP as a whole for allowing sense to prevail at the top echelons of the party, especially at this crucial stage in our history as a people, and facing the dire challenges that we are facing today.

Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, never allowed any meaningful analysis as to why the NPP lost the 2012 elections, beyond the fact that it was rigged. Even 24 hours before the Tamale vote, he was still quoted insisting that Nana Akufo-Addo won the 2012 elections! He now knows what the delegate think of his leadership.

A simple analysis of the unease the population felt about the belligerent "all die be die" nature of the campaign, inciting ethnocentric hostilities, tribal insults such as "Trokosi", and "Cow herds", show these are not the best way to get the vote swingers!

The NPP needs to organize a clean, peaceful and civilized electoral campaign, if it wants to be attractive as a party. Getting rid of the two comedians is an important first step, but a first step, nevertheless.

Unless the NPP is going to use a new face, it will be important for the number one pretender to the throne, Nana Akufo-Addo, to repudiate publicly the "we Akans are not cowards" declaration, as well as the "all die be die". He should also lead a convincingly sincere campaign to halt the "Trokosi" and "Cow herd" insults from his own supporters.

This is not to say that the NDC is not guilty of insulting NPP sympathisers. This is about the elephant coming home from the bush. It the NPP sincerely believes that they can campaign in the Volta Region and win vote swingers by calling everyone there as "Trokosi", they can go ahead.

The only way the NPP can make itself more attractive is to distance itself from the violent past, and to focus more on bread and butter issues that concern the citizenry. It is difficult to see Nana Akufo-Addo admitting that he erred with "all die be die" or "we Akans" comments.

So far as Nana Akufo-Addo remains the front-runner of the flag-bearer race of the NPP, whether the elephant will find its way home from the bush, will have to depend on him, or the delegates. From the treatment meted to Jake and Sir John, I am becoming increasingly confident that, at least, if Nana Akufo-Addo does not know what to do, the NPP delegates will know what to do.

Forward Ever! Backwards Never!

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