That said, I believe that deciding who becomes our flagbearer, one’s sacrifice or contributions to the party, is necessary to consider but significantly insufficient.

You see, when it comes to the general election, the promises one makes to party delegates and the sacrifices and contributions one has made to the party, are not as imperative as the person’s competence, character, credibility, and marketability.

In the general election, no floating voter would decide to vote for the NPP because our candidate promises the party delegates or sacrifices to the party. The Ghanaian voter may consider competence, credibility, and character.

However, due to the complexity of the game of politics, having a candidate with competence, character, and credibility alone is also insufficient. These important leadership traits must combine well with the marketability of the candidate.

And, as I have always alluded, the marketability of any product depends more on the nature of the market in which the product would be sold than even the quality of the product itself. For instance, the marketability of pork meat would depend on where it would be sold.

Whereas it would be more marketable in Germany, it would certainly not be marketable in Saudi Arabia. So, you see, one can sell a good product in the wrong market and make losses.

For me, knowing the nature of the Ghanaian political market and the kind of competitor we have on the market, should make it easy for us to know the kind of candidate we should present on the market for sale.

If we want to win the 2024 election, we should choose a candidate who can help us to have a significant advantage in the market over our competitors. This isn’t rocket science.

Our would-be candidate’s main competitor, John Mahama, is a Christian, Northerner, Gonja, and former president, who is married to an Akan-Christian woman. In respect of the Ghanaian political market, the market is extremely competitive.

Besides, in terms of numbers, the market is dominated by the following communities: youths (62%), women (50.7%), Akans (47.5%), and Christians (71.2%).

For me, since politics is a game of numbers, we must define a good candidate for 2024 in terms of the person’s ability to bring in the needed numbers from the aforementioned dominant communities, in addition to having unquestionable competence, character, and credibility to back his promises to Ghanaians.

In effect, he must be able to perform fairly well in the North and Volta and win the three major swing regions - Central, Western, and Greater Accra. Most significantly, he must be able to garner over 2 million votes for us in the Ashanti Region.

Dear delegate, you now have the ball in your court. Play it wisely.