Opinions of Monday, 16 April 2018

Columnist: Rockson Adofo

The seeming lack of political strategies by NPP is fuelling the prophetic defeat against them

Some member of the NPP during a party rally Some member of the NPP during a party rally

Whether the lately numerously purported prophetic revelations about NPP getting defeated in election 2020 are false or true, my emphatic observation has always been the lack of political strategies by NPP. The NPP as people but not only a political party, can be said to have naive attitude toward politics when it comes to staying in power longer enough to implement their often conducive policies to better the general living conditions of Ghanaians and the image of Ghana. This is not an insult to the intelligence of anyone but an undisputable fact. This is my opinion and opinions are like noses, each person has got one.

You may have good intentions but as it is said, good intentions alone cannot bring about the world peace. The intentions must translate into practicalities. In much the same way, the NPP always have good intentions and they try to implement them but because they have not the strategic vision to stay in power longer enough to have their implemented policies fully bear the intended fruits, their implemented policies are cut short by the NDC or whichever governmental regime takes over from them.

I am not expecting the NPP to engage in useless propaganda of bamboozling Ghanaians into believing in things that they have not done as it is the trait of the NDC. However, as most Ghanaians are not yet politically savvy and are easily misled, there is the need for outlets to let Ghanaians know what the government has done, is doing, and will do as well as educating them on why the government is facing certain challenges and how they will be eventually be overcome. This comes down to effective communication and involvement of the people at every stage and turn of events.

In Ghana, if you are a government and you have it as your intention to retain power for long through only your good works without effectively interacting with the people and engaging them through communication, you will become like the proverbial person who although is fast asleep in the safety of his/her room, he/she has his/her legs still outside in the open.

Having respect for people irrespective of their status and acknowledging their usefulness and roles played in accomplished tasks are vital to keeping them always closer to you. This lack of quality within the party has on some occasions given me the reason to lambast some NPP leaders of whom the most recent was John Boadu. His undiplomatic way of resolving issues arising in two constituencies or districts where the majority of the NPP members had expressed their dissent to persons the party hierarchy was trying to impose on them as MCE/DCE or maliciously denying them the chance to be registered onto the party’s electoral register, was worse than an improvised explosive device employed to scatter the members apart and from the party.

Now, many are these so-called political doomsayers who for fame and money have started prophesying the defeat of NPP in election 2020. Much as we should not believe them, we should neither discard their prophecies as nonsensical and unworthy of any serious person’s attention. Their prophecies although could be false, they have the potency to wreak havoc on NPP as in Ghana, most electorates do not vote on issues but on tribal lines, personality, familiarity and the worst of all, selling their votes for a pittance of say, 10 to 50 Ghana Cedis. The false prophecies can influence almost the entire members of the church where the prophet making such prophecies is the head to vote according to what their head has said instead of listening to their own voices and wishes.

In today’s Ghana, most of the so-called Christians who are carnal-minded Christians of course, worship their pastors and prophets but not God. They do as their pastors tell them or else, the followers of say, “Angel Prophet” Obinim, will not ask his church members, both men and women to produce their used underwear to be burnt and for him to touch the genitalia of the males to secure them big and long penis only to see all for them adhere to his request.

With this attitude of the Ghanaian, should you be naive to shoo the doom-saying prophecies out without taking counter strategic measures to let their followers see reason, it will go a long way to have a knock-on effective on those outside the churches to tow the same line because a prophet has said it.

As I keep saying, all the prophets may not be fake and all their prophecies may not be false but most of them are, and because of that we cannot tell who is telling the truth and who is lying. However, all those going public with their conditional prophecies are all fake regardless of who they are. A good prophet will approach the person that a revelation is about in confidence but not go on air to speak to the whole nation.

Some of their prophecies are mere predictions. They look at the unfolding events to come out with their crap. May I seize this opportunity to advise either my senior or junior brother Prophet Owusu Bempah, my Juaben-Ashanti compatriot, not to take delight in on air prophetic political or whatever, revelations any longer? I am not enthused at all by such actions. They do not glorify God but only seek to edify the prophet themselves.

NDC did a lot of evil things to Ghana and stole a lot but since Ghanaians are unpredictable when it comes to casting their votes, I shall only advise the NPP to put in place strategies ad cease believing that their good works will be more than enough to hold them in power. Should they do that, it will be comparable to resting on the oars. The bible advises that faith and works should go simultaneously. Therefore, strategies should go hand in hand with implementation of good policies.

As somebody who loves Ghana and seeks the collective interests of all, I have privately communicated what may be some of the envisaged vital strategies to someone but to study them to find them useful for implementing is the problem. I have always said, I should not, or you should not, wait to be in power or a position of responsibility to be able to serve or help your nation. Simply pass on your noble ideas to those in power to implement them. Even here, one may hit a snag. Some of those you pass the ideas to may think you may take the credit for the accrued benefits if the ideas are implemented hence taking the limelight out of them. That is how the black mentality operates hence may brush your ideas under the carpet.

I did advise through my published articles in May and July 2017 that the military must be brought out to assist the police fight the armed robberies. The leaders might not have noticed the publications or found relevance in the suggestion until the armed robbery took an astronomical dangerous dimension before the soldiers were ordered to assist in the fight against the canker barely a month or two ago.

Insecurity alone can negate all the good works by the NPP to send them into opposition despite free Senior High School education and all the other good policies in implementation. If you get all the good things and your life is not secure, what will be the benefit of those things to you in the end? Will armed robbery not be more than enough to scare foreign investors from coming to Ghana or preventing Ghanaians residing overseas to relocate to Ghana to invest in the economy? If that happens, will joblessness not abound with more people involving themselves in various acts of criminalities to survive?

I am not a political consultant. I love offering free advice and suggestions but as Ghanaians do not like free advice and suggestions but free material things, I shall stop offering free advice to rather channel my efforts into my private project which I have left in limbo.

NPP, wake up to strategize very well. I wish Peter Antwi-Boasiako and Nana Gyebi and others in London good luck in their endeavours to contest to become elected officers in the NPP-UK branch.