I observed with keen interest the just ended Building Ghana Tour by Mr John Dramani Mahama, the 2024 flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and as a Communicator of the party, I must admit that I was very pleased with it.

The year is indeed pregnant, with the NDC poised for the 2024 victory in December to change the fortunes of this country for the better, as the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government had failed WOEFULLY.

The flagbearer is therefore expected to appoint his campaign team to help him execute the 2024 campaign agenda which many political pundits have described as tough, after appointing his running mate and unveiling her.

I am interested in who gets an appointment in the campaign team, but as a communication member of the party, my interest is who becomes the Campaign Spokesperson and my interest is peaked here because the 2024 general election is going to be about comparable of records after the NPP and NDC have stayed in power for 16 years each.

Another issue expected to be at the center of the campaign is the MESSAGE of both parties. Luckily on our part, the NDC has the best message which is about the 24-hour economy, while Dr. Bawumia and the NPP are still struggling to get a message for the upcoming elections, having said everything it needs to say in the 2016 and 2020 elections and there is absolutely nothing more to say going into the 2024 elections. But hey, trust the NPP to come up with something, especially when they still have the majority of the media on their side. Is it going to be DIGITILIZATION?

Whichever way it is, the MESSAGE is going to be one of the key pointers of this campaign and I still trust my party to be the winner in this.

But, the BIG question is, who is capable among the NDC to execute this BIG agenda for us? Before I continue, I must commend Joyce Bawa Mugtari, an Aide to former President John Mahama, Mr Stan Dogbe, and Felix Kwakye Fosu for holding forth so far in managing the communications of our leader and flagbearer. And with Stan Dogbe especially, I love his sense of branding, which we will need more, going into this crucial election.

But as a Communications member of the party, I think that the best-fit person and cut out for the position of the 2024 Campaign Spokesperson is Lawyer James Agyenim Boateng. For any true NDC member, this name rings a bell as he was the 2020 campaign spokesperson for Mr Mahama, a role he played with distinction.

Mr James Agyenim Boateng brings a lot of things on board, including his deep understanding of the media landscape in Ghana, as he was one time the morning show host of Radio Gold. And as we saw in the 2020 elections, he was always on top of issues regarding the propagation of messages by the flagbearer and it is no surprise that, the likes of Mr Buabeng Asamoah and co found it difficult to match his efforts.

A friend journalist just told me that, in the 2020 general elections, Mr Agyenim Boateng would send them a daily press statement about the campaign activities of the flagbearer including voices, videos and pictures and they never missed anything that was said by the leader. He was however unhappy over how the Building Ghana Tour was managed. According to him, they hardly got any news for publication unless they monitor Woezor TV which was difficult as their staff numbers are small.

On a personal note, I also think a lot of good messages as delivered by the flagbearer during the tour never got to the attention of the media and one such example is his meeting with the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana, as well as the Traders at Abossey Okai. When he becomes President in 2025, Mr Mahama promised to work with some local financial institutions to give soft loans to these importers to quickly clear their goods at the port while he would personally ensure that, the interest is not a killer one. We all know how these importers have been complaining about the lack of cash to clear their goods under the current government and one would have wished that much media attention was given to such a laudable idea by Mr Mahama but I didn’t see it or hear it in any media outlets.

That is why as we move into the critical campaign stage of the 2024 general elections, the campaign team must once again make James Agyenim Boateng its spokesperson. We don’t have to miss any message from our leader and his running mate in the media and James Agyenim Boateng will ensure that, as he has done it before in the 2020 general elections.

The NPP has already appointed Miracle Aboagye as the Campaign Spokesperson to Dr. Bawumia and we are all witness to how he is struggling in his early days of work, with the abysmal performance tracker recently launched exposing him big time.

Luckily, we in the NDC have someone in the person of Mr. James Agyenim Boateng, a lawyer, politician, and astute media practitioner with an unblemished record and I hope that, Mr John Dramani Mahama and the NDC will retain him as the Campaign Spokesperson to execute the communication aspect of our campaign which is very key in our success on December 7, 2024.

This is a very important assignment and I will urge the top brass of the party, including Mr. Julius Debrah, Mr. Ato Ahwoi and Kwabena Ahwoi, Mr Totobi Quakye, Mr Asiedu Nketia, Prof. Joshua Alabi and all other key stakeholders of the party to make it happen for we need Mr. James Agyenim Boateng to play a key role in the execution of the 2024 campaign. Insha Allah Victory will be ours.