President John Dramani Mahama’s strategy is to win the favour of disgruntled members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) by deepening the rift between such individuals and the party’s flag bearer, Dr Samuel Adu Gyamfi, a political science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, has suggested.

“No matter how much we disregard and discredit what the president is doing, he is appealing to some members of the NPP who are aggrieved. If these people can decide that they will not go and vote, it will be against the NPP itself,” he explained in an interview with Prince Minkah on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Thursday, 25 August.

For him, judging by the current state of the NPP, no one could convince him that its suspended chairman, Paul Afoko, who recently lost a court case against the party, is on good terms with the NPP leadership.

He was of the opinion that if Mr Afoko and all other NPP members who are unhappy with the current situation decided not to vote for Nana Akufo-Addo, the fortunes of the party in the December 7 elections would be reduced.

To him, that remained the objective of the president, hence his approach lately to convey a negative image of Mr Akufo-Addo during his campaigns.

“You cannot tell me that Paul Afoko is at peace. You cannot tell me that the other members of the NPP fraternity who are unhappy with the outcomes of that decision are entirely happy today. So, when the president decides to speak in a certain manner, what he is doing is to appeal to the conscience of such persons who are aggrieved within the NPP?” he explained.

He said political pundits believed Akufo-Addo’s leadership was tested when the disciplinary issue of “the suspended chairman and general secretary came up” some few months ago. “No matter how the party is able to bury the hatchet, the NDC’s political campaign strategy will raise the dead because they know that if they smear the personality of Akufo-Addo, it will sell.”

He cited an example of how “the spin doctors of the NDC were able to propagate the ‘all die be die’ comments made by Mr Akufo-Addo [to convey a violent image of him to the electorate] which contributed to the loss of the NPP in the previous election”.

It would be recalled that President Mahama told Ghanaians not to vote for a 'divisive dictator' like Mr Akufo-Addo in the December 7 presidential election. While addressing supporters of the NDC in Bimbilla in the Northern Region on Tuesday, 23 August as part of his campaign, Mr Mahama said: “What we need in Ghana is an understanding president. The era of dictatorship is gone: we are not looking for a dictator, somebody who cannot stand criticism in his own party. If you criticise him, he will sack you…that is not the kind of leader we are looking for. We are looking for a leader who can bring people together.

“...It is a very dangerous experiment. Ghana is not at the stage where we are experimenting leadership, and so you cannot come and beg that we should try you. We are not in the era of experiments and trials; we are in the era of what is sure. We have seen this government; one of the major successes of this government is peace and stability.

“We are looking for a leader who can unite Ghana and not a leader who will divide Ghana. If you cannot unite your own party, how do you unite a nation?"

According to the lecturer, all these formed part of a well-crafted strategy to shift the campaign from an “issue-based discussion” which will not favour the NDC.