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Opinions of Sunday, 10 October 2021

Columnist: Rockson Adofo

What is NPP’s strategy for breaking the alternating rotational 8-year circle in government between them and the NDC?

The New Patriotic Party(NPP) flag The New Patriotic Party(NPP) flag

It has either wrongly or correctly come to be established and accepted for fact that power has been exchanging hands between the NDC and the NPP on an eight-yearly period.

This 8-year cyclical period of power changing hands is a perfect recipe for political corruption effected by the nation’s politicians and their cronies and families.

Until that rotational alternating 8-year circle of change in government is broken, the politicians and their family and friends will continue to wreak havoc on the nation’s economic development. Those in power will drag their feet when it comes to prosecuting and punishing their predecessors who may have conducted themselves corruptly to cause financial loss to the state through embezzlement of state funds and assets or their actions and inactions.

This may be what is, “You scratch my back, I scratch yours”. Should the government in power seriously prosecute and convict his predecessors suspected, or clearly known, to have stolen from the state when in power, he who is currently in power will also end up suffering the same fate of prosecution at the end of the 8-year period when the baton of governance changes hands.

Therefore, for the avoidance of prosecution, none of the governments in power will seriously seek to punish corrupt government appointees regardless of which party they belong to. This is the bane of the economic emancipation of Ghana, my country of birth.

For the neck of the corrupt and economy-retardant 8-year rotational circle of power alternating between the NPP and NDC to be broken, to restore sanity to the Ghanaian economy for the betterment of the majority, if not the entire, citizenry, I will do the little I can through cogent suggestions and advice to bring closure to that monster of the 8-year circle.

Do the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as a political party and people, have any strategy in place for breaking the obviously corrupt, nation-wrecking, and economy-retardant 8-year power-changing-hands circle? I can’t tell but from their too early to judge actions and pronouncements, they don’t.

As Ghanaians do not understand the detailed concept of democratic governance but only its superficiality, thereby allowing tribalism, propaganda, white lies, and bribery to influence their voting pattern, it is just about right for me to assist to nail that constant 8-year alternating of power in the coffin.

For if Ghanaians indeed did understand the importance of democratic governance as emanated from their universal suffrage, they would always vote to elect people on meritocracy who will come to serve them and the country with all their heart, mind, and soul but not on the influence of tribalism, bribery, nepotism, and regionalism.

For the 8-year alternating circle to be broken, the current political game in the country will without a doubt in my mind, demand the election of the current Vice President, Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, as the NPP flagbearer and presidential candidate going into general election 2024. He should be supported by Hon. Alan Kwadwo Kyeremateng aka Alan Cash as his Vice Presidential-candidate.

Should Alan Cash rather win the NPP primaries as the party’s flagbearer and presidential candidate for election 2024, then to be honest with NPP and Ghanaians, defeat stares NPP in the face. Any politically prudent analyst should be able to tell this based on the known factors that influence the direction of electorate’s voting in Ghana.

The unfortunate statement of “Yen Akanfo) party” as once made will be a trump card to be used by the NDC against the NPP should Dr. Bawumia for any reason be sidelined, although NPP believe in the sanctity of democratic election to choosing their flagbearer.

Why do people offer to contest for the flagbearer’s slot of a political party? Is it not to finally win a general election to become the president of their nation? What, if you win the flagbearership but lose the presidential race? Have you been able to achieve your objective and that of your party? NO!!!

Will it not be better for your party to win than to lose because of your overambition? Or, it should be the usual Ghanaian evil mentality of “If I can’t have it, then nobody else must have it”, as in “ebek3 goal dea enk3 corner”, to wit, it had better go to corner than goal.

Should the NPP make any mistake on this sticking problem, they should forget election 2024 and see it as a foregone defeat for them. This sticking obstacle cannot be jumped over or evaded but to be recognized and deal with it sensibly as I have suggested.

Find a brief history about why Alan Cash has permanently been overambitious to become the president of Ghana on the ticket of NPP since the departure of His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor from the presidency. He lent money to the NPP towards then presidential-candidate John Agyekum Kufuor’s campaign in 2000 that culminated in NPP’s success.

The money was lent to the party on condition that he, Alan Cash, would become the flagbearer of NPP and eventual president of Ghana after President John Agyekum Kufour.

Those people who could, or can, testify to the veracity or otherwise of my claim were or are, Bernard Joao da Rocha (deceased), Peter Ala Adjetey (deceased), Samuel Arthur Odoi-Sykes, former President John Agyekum Kufuor, and Alan Kwadwo Kyeremateng himself.

Anyway, a promise is a debt to pay but not the debt itself. If, for obvious reasons the promise given to Alan Cash cannot be fulfilled, he had better understand it and compromise for the sake and betterment of the nation.

Nonetheless, in order not to lose everything, he must be offered the Vice Presidential slot until all is perfectly well for him to get the chance to contest for the presidency and win it in some future time.

The NPP must urgently get a strategist who will sort things out properly for them.

Defy me to do differently and NPP goes into opposition, giving prominence to the much corrupt and hated 8-year rotational circle described above.

Who is a strategist, one may ask? A strategist is a person with responsibility for the formulation and implementation of a strategy. Strategy generally involves setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. ... It involves activities such as strategic planning and strategic thinking.

Find below who were those three NPP musketeers that were the force behind NPP getting money from Alan Cash to finally put up a successful campaign to win election 2000.

Bernard Joao da Rocha was a founding member and the First National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party. He was also the first Ghanaian Director of the Ghana School of Law when it was opened in 1958.

Peter Ala Adjetey was the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana from 2001 to 2005.

Samuel Arthur Odoi-Sykes is a Ghanaian politician and diplomat. A New Patriotic Party member, he served as party chair from 1998 to 2001. He was appointed Ghana's High Commissioner to Canada, serving from 2001 to 2002