Why We Lost the 2008 Elections

Maybe it is too late to point fingers, pin blames or even say 'I told you so'. So do we leave it as it is? I think not. People need to realize that for the party to move forward as we said in our campaign; a number of issues need to be addressed. This short article is meant to highlight the reasons why the NPP lost the 2008 election. It is worth noting that the reasons are not limited to the ones mentioned. Thus, I welcome any other reasons. The supporters in Kumasi have made it clear that Nana Addo should be the presidential candidate representing the NPP in the 2012 election. I agree with them and I am sure supporters around the country feel the same about Nana Addo. [This has since been confirmed all over the country where ever Nana Addo holds a thanksgiving rally]. The supporters in Kumasi say that because presidential candidates are known to run twice. And presidents tend to enjoy two terms. So will Atta Mills and the NDC remain in power till 2016? Possibly. Hence we need to address the issues underlying our defeat in the 2008 election. So then was the loss an internal loss or an external loss? I think it was a mixture of both; with the internal factor dominating. There are different ways of telling the story but I think a chronological outline will be the best. So enjoy and remember to drop your two cents.

1. Nominating the presidential candidate
   

You may wonder why I have taken it that far back. I think that's when we started losing the election. In selecting our presidential candidate, there were eighteen (18) presidential aspirants. All presidential aspirants were equally eligible to lead the party. Or were they? Was it a mockery of politics or a mockery of the party itself? Eighteen aspirants meant the party was divided into eighteen unequal sections. This could have been avoided. There were many unfamiliar names. Unfamiliar here means the names were not names one would have expected to see as a presidential aspirant. Eighteen presidential aspirants? This was a joke. That's what it was. The only people duly fit to be presidential aspirants were Nana Addo (of course), Dr. Apraku, Aliu Mahama and Osafo-Maafo. These are the familiar names in the party. The other contestants had no place putting their names forward as presidential aspirants. You may think I am being biased in thinking Nana Addo was the best person to lead the party. I have my reasons. Certain people have served the party since its inception. Nana Addo is one of them. But to be fair a few new names could have been added to the names mentioned. I am just saying eighteen is a large number for a contest.

So how did this affect the party in the 2008 elections? Well, the numerous aspirants had followers. I single out Alan Kyeremanten. There was a breakaway from the NPP by Kwabena Adjei to form his own political party (Reformed Patriotic Democrats - RPD) which contested in the 2008 elections. About 90% of RPD's supporters were from the NPP. It was rumored at the time that the RPD sought to have Alan Kyeremanten as their presidential candidate for the 2008 election. The RPD obtained 0.7% of the votes cast in the December 7 election. On Alan Kyeremanten, he was the first runner up in the nomination for presidential candidates. In other words, he did way better than the names I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Why did he do so well? Remember the name: 'Alan Cash'. His campaign for presidential candidate was all about money. And you know how Ghanaians 'love' the word money. In fact everyone loves money. Besides he had the backing of the ex president Kufuor. Was Kufuor's support for Alan Cash warranted? Many top or old members of the NPP thought and still think otherwise. Firstly, Kufuor was aware of the significant contribution that Nana Addo and the other names mentioned in the previous paragraph had made to the party. Even at times when it was dangerous (personally, politically and asset wise) to have political affiliations other than with the NDC. Secondly, Kufuor's campaign for presidency in 1996 and 2000 was not a money based campaign. He had financial support from all arms of the party. People made personal and financial sacrifices because it was not about money. So then why was Kufuor supporting Alan Cash? I guess that question will never be answered. But in my opinion, the party's division started from then.

Two camps emerged from that convention. The Nana Addo camp and the Alan Cash camp. Nana Addo failed to attain the required votes to lead the party in the 2008 elections under the NPP's constitution. If my memory serves me right, I think Justice Kpegah took issue with this after the 2008 election run-off. Well, there was meant to be a run-off between Nana Addo and Alan Cash. However, Alan Cash conceded and Nana Addo was nominated to lead the party in the 2008 presidential election. It was an honorable thing Alan Cash did. However, did that affect the party? Should there have been a run-off? I personally think a run-off was unnecessary but I am sure members in the Alan Cash camp had a different view. I will explore how the view manifested later on. This was just the beginning of the loss in the 2008 election.

1. The running mate/vice president selection
   

Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia? Who is he? I am sure many people can read out his curriculum vitae and tell me who he is at the moment. I challenge those who can that as at August 2008 they had no idea who Bawumia was. This is when I can confidently say I told you so. If anyone remembers my facebook status after Bawumia was picked then you would know what I am talking about. Nana Addo received many recommendations for vice president. Some party leaders think his selection of Bawumia demonstrated his lack of leadership skills. Others like Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey defended Nana Addo's pick. Other members of the party who supported Nana Addo's pick argued that it was a good pick because Bawumia was not your ordinary politician. In fact he was not a politician at all. Does any remember when he was introduced at the Takoradi rally? All I said was a lot of work needs to be done. Look at Mills' pick for running mate; John Mahama. He was actually picked before Bawumia was picked. The point I am making here is that technocrats like Bawumia are not used to win an election. Bawumia's pick was an entirely wrong decision in my opinion. The party lost in Bawumia's hometown. I can only draw one conclusion from this: his own people didn't want him to be vice president. Now his participation in the election has cost him his job as deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana.

Now let us take a look at the recommendations Nana Addo had for running mate. As early as April, chiefs in the central region and other prominent members of society advised Nana Addo to pick a running mate from the central region. Many people argued that chiefs should not involve themselves in politics. Why not? Are they not citizens of the country? In any event, the chiefs or togbui as they are referred to in the Volta Region contributed to the success of the NDC in that region. Besides, the chiefs in the central region were politically right for making such suggestions. Nana Addo was in a presidential election contest with his two main opponents being citizens of the Central Region. For those who advocate that tribalism has no room in politics. I beg you to wake up and smell reality. The 2008 presidential election has confirmed the already existing principle that tribalism is essential in Ghanaian politics. The fantes have been left out of Ghanaian politics for far too long. They have been taken for granted by politicians who have forgotten that the fight for Ghana's independence and politics started with the Fante Confederation in 1868.

The NDC were wise and played on this. Mills, a citizen of the central region from Komenda, was their presidential candidate. To be fair, his hopes for presidency commenced in 2000 where he lost to Kufuor. Yet, he never changed his slogan: 'adze wo fie a oye' (it's good to have something at home). He capitalized on this phrase and of course he received support from his people who without a doubt agreed with him. Nana Addo may have his reasons for not selecting a running mate from the central region or even the western region. The fantes may have voted massively for the NPP even though they would be second in command. At least they would appreciate the fact that the NPP considered the fantes in their administration. So politically, Nana Addo's pick for running mate was wrong.

Some party members argue that Nana Addo had to pick a Muslim from the North because he, Nana Addo, was a Christian from the south. Besides, it was the party's tradition that the running mate be from the Northern part of the country. When did party traditions and customs dominate the essence of winning an election? Anyway, there were other Muslims from the North who were capable of being Nana Addo's running mate. There were three people who had been tipped to be potential running mates of Nana Addo. They were Hajia Alima Mahama, Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface and Lepowura Alhaji Mohammed Nuru Deen Jawula. These were people who were well known on the political scene in Ghana. Alima was actually tipped to be selected as running mate. It would have been a historical appointment as it would have been the first time a woman was on a presidential ticket in Ghanaian politics. Nana Addo actually said he didn't mind having Alima. So why didn't he pick her? Maybe he made the right decision because both Boniface and Alima lost their seats in parliament. With all the support from Tescon, Boniface still lost his seat; one of the casualties in the 2008 elections.

Remember the Alan Cash camp? Well, they believed that Nana Addo will return the honorable act by Alan Cash and select Alan Cash as his running mate. Was this wishful thinking; maybe. But they had a right to think along those lines. The party was split in two camps. What better way to unite the party than to reach out to the leader of the other camp? Maybe Nana Addo had justifications for not selecting Alan Cash. They could include Alan Cash's political views or many other personal reasons. Nana Addo took a page out of Obama's book and decided not to select Alan Cash as his running mate just as Obama refused to select Hillary as his running mate. But then Obama ended up selecting an eminent politician as a running mate and not an unknown technocrat. Bottom-line, Nana Addo's failure to select Alan Cash as his running mate ticked off some loyal supporters of the party who had second thoughts regarding his leadership abilities.

1. The campaign
   

We run campaigns in elections in order to win the elections right? In order to win an election, one needs to run a very effective campaign. An effective campaign is effective as long as it stays within the confines of the law. So what was Nana Addo's campaign all about? The members of his campaign team ran a terrible campaign. Oh yes! Jake and Apraku did a terrible job in running Nana Addo's campaign. But they were not the only ones. I will highlight a few scenarios and examples.

In running a campaign against the NDC, one thing should be the core of the campaign: remind Ghanaians of who the NDC are. Ghanaians needed to be reminded of how corrupt the NDC party was; their disregard for the rule of law and civil liberties. That is what Nana Addo's campaign should have focused on alongside the usual development messages and manifesto content. So why didn't they do the things I have suggested? Answer is their respect for politics and the need to have a clean campaign. When did these become relevant in Ghanaian politics? Members of the NPP are known to be elitist and legally educated in one way or the other. For the reason that members of the party have extensive legal knowledge, it is difficult to run such campaigns. There is a term used to refer to such people in Ghana; 'book-long'.

NPP prefer to do everything according to the book. This doesn't work all the time. Besides, I don't see what is wrong with 'negative campaigning'. Apparently, they attempted to campaign along those lines but were asked to desist from such forms of campaign as they were unhealthy. Meanwhile the NDC were running such campaigns. Campaigns full of insults and mockery of the NPP. They stood on the platform at their rallies insulting members of the NPP directly and persuading their ignorant followers with nothing but false statements. Still the NPP refused to run such campaigns. Well until the last minute when the damage had already been done.

'We are moving forward'. This was a very catchy phrase which is still used to this day in churches and many other functions. The renowned musician in Ghana, Daddy Lumba, sung a song using that phrase. And that song still gets airplay even today. With a number of Ghanaian music artists like Kwabena Kwabena backing Nana Addo, the campaign was unsuccessful. The truth is Mills' effort in his campaign exceeded the effort Nana Addo put in his campaign. Mills started the door to door campaign with his message 'I care for you'. The NPP campaign team and others mocked him. Well who is laughing now? The people believed they could relate better to Mills. They felt confident around Mills. They saw Mills as a president who will be able to address their needs should they call upon him.

Nana Addo on the other hand has always been perceived as an arrogant person. Frankly speaking, I thought so too. From the days of 'Talking Point' and the NDC era, anytime he appeared on the television screen, he came across as arrogant. Ghanaians never forget things like that. I personally think Nana Addo did a very good job in getting rid of that arrogance for the sake of the 2008 elections. But like I said, Ghanaians don't forget the initial perception of a person. Ghanaians still viewed Nana Addo as arrogant. Well only 50.23% of Ghanaians viewed him as such.

Even the campaign advertisements were not as effective. The NPP only got serious on the night of 26^th December 2008. By which time it was too late. I wondered why they were airing such effective advertisements at such a time. But I was reminded that it was because members of the party preferred to do things according to book.

Nana Addo should not be the only one held responsible for the party's loss in the 2008 elections. There were many others who had a hand in the party's loss namely the members of parliament for the constituencies where the NPP lost. Members of parliament are given funds to campaign on behalf of the party in their constituencies. MPs pocketed the funds they were given and campaigned a little or not at all. Some MPs went to the extent of disregarding their constituencies all together. A typical example being Asamoah Boateng; the Minister for Information and MP for Mfantseman West. Though his arrogance played a key part in his loss, he disregarded his people and took them for granted. This led to the NPP losing a significant amount of seats in parliament and NDC gaining those seats. How did this affect the NPP's chances? Well with a majority in parliament, it was less difficult for the NDC to convince the undecided voters to vote the incumbent government out.

1. The presidential factor
   

I chose this title to compare both ex presidents of the fourth republic and then assess the influence either or both of them had on their party's campaigns. As I have mentioned already, Kufuor was part of the Alan Cash camp during the primaries and the convention. Ordinarily, people would have thought that being the president of the incumbent government; he will use his influence and support whoever was picked as the presidential candidate for the NPP. That should have been the case even though he was in a different camp at the time of nominating the presidential candidate.

Unfortunately for Nana Addo and the NPP, that was not the case. Kufuor did not participate in Nana Addo's campaign. At times I wondered if Kufuor was a member of the NPP party at all. I remember how people campaigned on behalf of Kufuor during the 2000 election and even more during the run-off. People argued that as Kufuor was the president at the time of the election, it was best to separate himself from Nana Addo if he wanted Nana Addo to win. I don't agree with that argument. Considering the favor Kufuor had with the people, especially the fantes, he campaigning on behalf of Nana Addo in the Central Region may have overturned the loss.

I draw your attention to Rawlings. He was all over the place campaigning for Atta Mills. All the NPP could make of this was that Rawlings is controlling Atta Mills. This was far from the truth. Rawlings was only securing his party's success in the election. One thing I noticed about Rawlings during the election period was that from the time when the votes were being counted to the time when the winner was declared and even after, he disappeared from the scene. This is not an article directed at praising or criticizing Rawlings. Save for acknowledging the impact he and his personality had on the Atta Mills' campaign and success during the 2008 election. An essential characteristic of Rawlings is his charisma. Where ever Rawlings went, people came in their numbers just to see him. Rawlings knew this and so did the Mills' campaign team. Hence they capitalized on Rawlings' charisma. Ashanti Region is the stronghold of the NPP. With this in mind, Rawlings spent most of his time campaigning for Atta Mills in the Ashanti Region. Even though it didn't change the existing fact that Ashanti Region is the stronghold of the NPP, it reduced the NPP's votes. Even in the second round.

I don't know the truth in this rumor and I welcome any correction. The rumor being that Dr. Apraku and other prominent members of the NPP including Nana Addo himself asked Kufuor to stay away from the Nana Addo campaign. The reason for this was that Kufuor would have 'overshadowed' Nana Addo in his own campaign. I found this reason to be ridiculous because Kufuor was leaving office. The only thing he could have done to Nana Addo's campaign would have been to help it and not destroy it. Other arguments I have heard about Kufuor's failure to support Nana Addo include Kufuor's intention to sabotage Nana Addo's chances of becoming president. That sounds so absurd right. That's what I thought when I initially heard it. But I cooked up a theory based on some facts which appear to support the fact that Kufuor had the intention of sabotaging Nana Addo's chances of becoming president. Have you wondered why Kufuor decided to release all the NDC members he was keen on imprisoning when he first came to power? Why did he decide to drop all cases against Nana Konadu and the other NDC members?

Rumor is Kufuor was quick to advise Nana Addo to concede. Why would you want to do that to your potential successor who happens to be from your own political party? In the last two years of his administration, Kufuor lost the support of his party members and worsened it by supporting Alan Cash for presidential candidate. Kufuor therefore had to plan for his personal future. So what does he do? He reaches out to the other side and makes a deal with the other side. You may think this assertion is farfetched. I urge you to take a look at the circumstances surrounding Kufuor's exit. He pardons members of the other party he was keen to put behind bars; he drops cases against these same party members. All this a day before he leaves office? I wonder why. Don't you? And more recently, the news coming out of Ghana was the approval of the kinds of benefit the ex-president receives on leaving office. Many people wonder why and call Kufuor greedy for that. All I said was that it is for the NDC to implement this. With that in mind, I was expecting the NDC to publicly declare a negative intention towards this ex gratia policy. I wasn't the only person surprised to hear that the NDC were in fact for the policy. [The NDC's position has since changed. So have many other MPs.] Maybe that was the cost of Nana Addo losing the election. That's just my personal assessment of the rumor that Kufuor indeed had the intention of sabotaging Nana Addo's campaign. However, I don't think Kufuor will actually sabotage the party which sent him to the castle.

Nevertheless, I argue that Kufuor did not do much for the party as was expected of him being the incumbent president. We all realized how the oil prices rose steadily in 2008. But then it dropped and the Kufuor administration never reduced petroleum prices. After the party's inability to obtain the constitutionally required majority to clinch the presidency, Kufuor's administration reduced petroleum prices. How insulting could that be to the citizens of Ghana? They felt they were being patronized by the NPP. And even worse, the NDC capitalized on this and made sure the Ghanaian people were aware of how much the NPP wanted to win the 2008 election by hook or crook. In my opinion, that decision to reduce the petroleum prices after the first round cost Nana Addo in the run-off.

The last straw demonstrating how Kufuor failed to assist the Nana Addo was when he turned around on his way to Tain to ask the citizens of Tain to vote for Nana Addo. No matter the view anyone holds, Tain was decisive in the 2008 election and if the NPP have obtained over 23,000 Nana Addo would have been president of Ghana. This means campaigning in Tain was as important as campaign for the election in general. Immediately it was announced that Tain will be the deciding constituency, prominent and influential members of the NDC headed that way. They campaigned vigorously for Atta Mills. Kufuor was on his way to Tain but then turned around because of security reasons. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard that. And he was only a few miles away from Tain. Were his security personnel and he not aware of the risk before heading off to Tain? Did they have to get that far before realizing that there was threat to the president in Tain? Unbelievable. He shouldn't have made the journey at all. I don't think there was any security threat in Tain because the whole nation's attention was there and there was tight security in and around Tain. Kufuor and his people should make up better stories. And this was the same man who was inviting Nana Addo to concede the elections way before Dr. Afari Gyan came out with the provisional results.

Based on the above conclusions backed up with facts, I am sure you will agree with me that Kufuor did not do enough for Nana Addo and the NPP in the 2008 elections. I have recently read that Nana Addo disagrees with the conclusions I have drawn. It is not his place to agree. His hands are tied. He has the responsibility of uniting the party. By agreeing with my conclusions, he risks dividing the party and making Kufuor the only president from the NPP unpopular. In a nutshell, his agreement with my conclusions will be at a disadvantage to the party.

1. The elections (the Ashantis, rejected ballots, at the polling stations, the illiterates, the fantes and undecided voters)
   

I always thought elections were won by the number of votes a party received from the registered voters who went out and cast their ballot on Election Day. But in Africa and Ghana there is an election myth that figures are inflated and sometimes ballot boxes have ballot papers in them before they arrive at their polling stations. I am sure many of you believed this myth just as I did. Well guess what? That myth is a reality. As I sat in a lecture at the Ghana Law School at Makola, I was amazed to know that the myth was in fact a reality. In the words of the lecturer, elections are not won by you and I standing in a queue in the hot sun to cast our ballot for our political party or the candidate we think deserves our mandate. Rather, winning an election in Ghana depends on which party can cheat best. Clearly the NDC were professionals at that. One thing we can be proud of as Ghanaians is the maturity of our democracy. However, we still have a long way to go. Like I stated earlier on, tribalism is very alive in Ghanaian politics and the 2008 elections confirmed that. Ghana is being congratulated all over the world for conducting such peaceful elections. Well, all over the world except in Africa. Africans especially Nigerians continually classify the NPP as 'fools' for being an incumbent government which couldn't steal the election in the first round when the difference was only 1% (more or less). They simply can't comprehend how the NPP will allow an election to get into a run-off by just 1%. That is because the NPP understands what democracy means and holds the electoral process in high regard.

Can we blame the Ashantis or the people in Kumasi for our loss? Ashanti Region is the NPP's stronghold and we are always confident when the results come in from Bantama, Nhyieso, Suame, Manhyia and other constituencies. The day before the first round elections, drivers who were illegally parked and traders who were trading at inappropriate places in Kumasi were asked to leave the area. They got infuriated by this action and decided not to vote at all. In fact this resulted in the low turnout in the Ashanti Region in the first round. Maybe and even probably, if the Ashantis had voted in the first round, the NPP and Nana Addo would have had the one touch victory they were looking for. It is likely that the Akyems will return the favor should Alan Cash be nominated as the presidential candidate for the NPP in 2012. Hence, I suggest that Nana Addo should remain as the NPP's presidential candidate in 2012 if we want to win.

The number of rejected ballots and spoiled votes in the first round exceeded 200,000. This was the second highest number of spoilt ballots since 1992. And back then NDC won as well. Do you perceive what I am driving at? Some people have dismissed Dr. Apraku's accusations and assertions. They have actually ridiculed his allegations. His allegation was that those who counted the ballots had some special ink in their hair. And anytime they passed their hand through their hair and held the ballot paper, the ballot paper became void. Others have blamed lack of education on the part of the EC. I think it is all rubbish. The voters clearly knew what finger to vote with. The number of spoilt ballots is so large that the lack of education argument doesn't stand or make any sense. Voting is not a new thing in Ghana. We've been voting since 1992. I actually agree with Dr. Apraku on this one. Only because most of the spoilt ballots actually belonged to Nana Addo. And those were enough to give him the one touch victory he sought. It could have been the strategy the NDC employed with the sole purpose of pushing the elections to the second round.

What happened at the polling stations is appalling. Most of the officials at the polling stations belonged to the NDC. I single out a constituency in Accra where out of 19 polling stations, 18 EC officials belonged to the NDC. The only EC official who belonged to the NPP was challenged as being biased because of her political affiliation. Nonetheless, she stood her ground and asked whether any of the other officials had no party affiliations. This saved her from being removed as an official. In the Volta Region, all the EC officials there were NDC supporters. The NPP polling agents were actually chased out of the stations. This was the basis of our cry of electoral fraud. We went to the extent of invoking the courts. But then I remember reading on the NPP website that it was only a reckless party that would not send party agents to the polling stations and later made accusations of electoral fraud. This was exactly what the NPP were doing; acting contrary to their words. I knew the court action would be unsuccessful so I was the least surprised when it was withdrawn from court. We were crying electoral fraud when our own party agents had signed the results. The results coming out of the Volta Region especially from areas such as Ketu South were ridiculous. Firstly, not that many people live in Ketu South; and secondly they had a massive turnout in the first round so the turnout in the run-off was definitely tantamount to electoral fraud. What the party agents should have done was to refuse to sign the results. This brings me to another reason why I think Kufuor did not do enough for Nana Addo and the NPP. Knowing how the results from the Volta Region are always outrageous, he should have increased the security in the Volta Region. Maybe he did. But I don't believe it was enough.

One thing I noticed was that the illiterates voted massively for the NDC. They had no idea why they were voting. They were voting because they wanted change. What kind of change? I asked some of the voters what kind of change they sought. They couldn't tell me. It sounded as if this election was a joke to them. They didn't understand why we needed to change governments. This led me to advocate for qualified voting which was met with a lot of criticisms. I have touched on the fante factor so I won't repeat myself here. Except that the fantes have shown that in any election, the candidate they vote for is the candidate who becomes president and as such they should not be taken for granted. One last point under this heading is that once the undecided voters realized that people were voting massively for the NDC, they joined those people in the second round and increased Atta Mills' votes. I know the NPP's stronghold is in the Ashanti Region and especially the constituencies I mentioned. Why did it take so long for those results to come in? It appeared as if the NPP were out to cheat hence they withheld the election results from Kumasi in order to inflate them.

Even more astonishing is this theory. Nearly half of the country if not half of the country live in the Ashanti and Eastern Regions. I say this because these are the only two regions where the NPP had a majority. The NPP is fortunate that Ghanaian elections are not conducted as the US elections otherwise the NDC would have had the mandate of eight regions. Picture this: if the NPP had obtained the same percentage of votes in the Ashanti Region or Eastern Region as the NDC obtained in the Volta Region, the NPP would have won the election. And that would have been a majority in only two regions.

1. Complacency
   

I saved the primary reason for last. Complacency was the main reason why we lost the election. We thought we had it in the bag. We were not as vigilant and aggressive as the NDC were. In fact they ensured that they were not bullied or cheated at all. And when it came to deciding who the better cheat was, they played their cards well. They campaigned vigorously and used every trick in the political book. Both positive and negative. They dwelt on the illiterates and the fante fishermen along the coast. They capitalized on the few mishaps of the Kufuor administration and painted the NPP as a party of crooks. We just sat there and watched. We could say Ghanaians are ungrateful. We gave them free health; free ante natal and post natal for pregnant women; free education; better roads; a stable macro economy; a stable currency and these are just a few of the notable things of the NPP administration. In the Central Region, numerous schools were built and refurbished; the Cape Coast road was maintained to ensure that the route that claimed the lives of travelers was once again safe and yet the fantes refused to vote for us. These were the reasons why we lost. We knew we had done all these things for the Ghanaian people. Reassuring us that there was no way they will compare the two main parties, NPP and NDC, and vote the NDC. That is where we were wrong. There was little or no campaign in the Central Region. Blame the MPs? I already did that. Even when we were losing, we were confident that we had won the election. We thought we didn't need votes we actually needed. It was this complacency that drove us to court to seek an injunction on grounds any election lawyer would have known was without merit.

If we want to come back in 2012, we have a long way to go. We have to convince the fante people to vote us back into power. That will be an extremely difficult task considering how they would be aware that every president enjoys two terms. They will be less likely to remove one of their own from power. Our campaign will need a new strategy and dimension. It should be more dynamic and should involve the younger generation not boring old folk like Dr. Apraku and Obetsebi-Lamptey. We should include the local people and the illiterates (since qualified voting is not in place) in our campaigns. They should not feel left out. We should concentrate less on NDC strongholds like the Volta Region and the three northern regions because no matter the extent of your campaign in those regions and the development projects you set up in those regions, they will always vote NDC. We should not take for granted our own strongholds and battlegrounds such as Greater Accra and Brong Ahafo. And finally, we should have more vigilant and aggressive party agents at polling stations. Especially in the Volta Region and if possible provide these party agents with security. With these corrections in place, I have no doubt that the NPP will return to power in 2012.

Written and Edited by Kow A. Essuman Esq. LL.B. Hons, Barrister. All comments, corrections and contributions should be sent to kaessuman@yahoo.com.

These are the thoughts and observations of Kow A. Essuman Esq. LL.B. Hons, Barrister. Any attempt to reproduce all or any part of this article without the express permission of the above named person shall be an infringement of intellectual property laws; following which the author reserves the right to commence an action/suit against any such person (s) or body for breach of copyright and/or any other action/suit the author sees fit.