The political atmosphere in Ghana now can best be describe as a state of divided front on the part of the government, workers and the opposition political parties ?who are strategically working behind against all odds the government is going through to their political advantage.
There is always a work for the government to do by providing basic essential goods and services as a contractual social agreement for its citizens as been voted to power to govern for a period of time. Time in politics and managing issues confronting government is always the major task most government finds very difficult to do and how government manages the period of its tenure before going to campaign for another term of office.
The former president John Agyekum Kuffour face similar challenge in the heat of 2008 election where tension of all kinds of strikes from the masses demanding better conditions of service more especially on fuel and high cost of living. Strategically the time for the New Patriotic Party to respond to these challenges was very short and the clouds of 17 flag bearers battling the seat of ex president Kuffour affects the continuity of the NPP to win power.
Carefully examine the storm the National Democratic Congress is going through, the government and his team are extra careful to open up the challenges of the financial kitty by admitting the problems the government is going through and these setbacks looks to be a problem which needs the concerns from all fronts than, where for president Kuffour has to buy into the cry of the masses to reduce fuel to win the sympathy of the electorate, which paints the government in a bad taste before going in for 2008 election, which NPP lost to NDC government.
POLITICAL DYNAMICS
The New Patriotic Party is really enjoying a honey moon period while they are working in the hot political kitchen vetting and striving hard for a peaceful flag bearer contest before 2015 January. Politically the national executive committee have to work hard to sustained the quiet discipline they party is enjoying now and hope the election of the leader of the party ahead of 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections would not bring any chaotic situation, since the party cannot be describe as the best alternative to take over from the government of NDC. There is a great resentment on the part of the voters against the two major political parties NDC and the NPP for not fulfilling their political manifesto as both parties always trumpet on their campaign platform.
The NPP image and individual political arrays of media war about candidates going for the flag bearer contest is another hurdle the party is likely going to destroy its image and brand from within.
The new dynamics of the party to unite as one political force and as NPP family to pursue the 2016 presidential election to wrestle power from the NDC is going to fall flat after the fierce presidential primaries. The long term ambition for some new faces gunning for the flag bearer race could act as a political catalyst by holding individual volunteers whose interest has been dashed right after the contest to hold back since their interest and contribution would not be recognized as expressed by Allan Kyremanteng in one of its epistle that he was frustrated in all his attempt to join Nana Akuffo Addo,s campaign in the last presidential election.
In another development, the last straw the broke the camel?s back, is that most of the seven contestant for the NPP presidential primaries race intuitively believes that, this is the last time for Nana in case he win the NPP primaries flag bearer contest and by choice they can decide to go on the quiet to allowed him to pursues its own campaign. On the hind sight some party faithful can pray for Nana to lose power to president Mahamah again for him to come back to lead the NPP party.
The National Democratic Congress on the other hand, has a difficult task ahead to win the sympathy votes the party enjoy when the nation lost the seating president the late Proff. John Evans Atta Mills. President John Mahamah,s political star and the good will he enjoy from the four corners of Ghana makes him to win the race without any second round, despite the six months election court case filed by NPP he was declared the winner by the electoral commission.
The tension from the workers front on high cost of living and other condition of service from professional bodies and higher institutions of learning, the government still looks resilient on all fronts by allowing the freedom of expression to take the centre stage. And all strikes against the performance of the government seems to be a wakeup call, as some of the policy are likely to reap results before 2016 December or worsen the chances of the NDC Party to win power back if the government is not in position to respond to the high cost of living more especially stabilization of the free fall of the cedi and high cost of fuel prices.
The government posturing to allowed the Trade Union Congress to go in for national protest for high cost of major economic challenges and using dialogue to fight issues on the labour front, and if all arsenals are now ready on the part of the government to contained all the challenges by Dec. 2014 to strive very smoothly from 2015 Jan. to 2016 Dec, is likely NDC can win the sympathy of the voters as the obvious choice to retained power for another four years.
Strategically, the last quarter of the 2014 calender year for the government seems to look very positive since the farmers are going to enjoy good agriculture harvest and food supply that would lower the prices of goods and services, though prices may be up from August this year by Dec. 2014 to March 2015 staples and other agriculture produce would flood the market since the good harvest of demand would fall for supply for all agriculture produce to lower the prices of food stuff. The challenge facing the government to have a respite of peace from this time to next year first quarter is how to maintain the price of fuel from this time to December this year.
THE VOTERS CHOICE
?A brand has to evolve. It cannot remain the same because the voters are very dynamic. The demands of the voters change so you have to meet these demands,? said Navotas. The parties (NPP & NDC) are really at the cross roads, and the road to victory for 2016 has to do with a lot of hard work which has to do with marketing/packaging and branding. Is the executive?s of the parties in position has to remain focus and neutral with all these clouds of inertia of interest from camps showing their powers of electing the leader of the party.
According to, Joseph Schumpeter (Corner and Pels, 2003) to focus on another common point in relation between politics and market is very relative in wining political power.
To the extent that a company negotiates selling oil, politicians negotiate votes; both follow the universal rule of demand and supply. Successful businesses as well as successful politics means having a product that consumer are willing to choose; the competition shows that the best wins.
There is a tendency of decline into the future how things can change as NDC is struggling to show an admission of accepting the true state of the economy as both major two political parties are counting days and calendar year to 2016 election. Strategically, one and half years in politics is a very long way to go and the hurdle ahead of NDC looks to be very hard and difficult. NDC as a party has a culture and the machinery to manage any internal political issues that affect them in the heat of major elections and always win the sympathy votes as compared to NPP.
By all projections, the NPP is going to face another major political storm in their forth coming parliamentary seats. We can recalled, the last contest in the NPP circles on the primaries of parliamentary candidates, the contest was faced with the same negative dynamics on Nana Addo and Alan Kwadwo Kyremanten line.
In the last contest Nana Addo was able to influence some primaries. For example, the Hon. Kye Mensah, the minority leader was allowed to go unopposed, on the hindsight all projections point to the fact that Nana Addo is going to win the 2014 presidential primaries election again, though he lost to John Dramani Mahamah in 2012 presidential elections.
Is 2016 parliamentary primary elections going to give birth to independent candidates for both parties? And how is it going to play out? This is another storm both parties must manage. Politically, Ghanaians seems to be dissatisfied with NDC as they seat on the tenterhooks during the elections trials and the govt. is finding it very difficult to strive through the storm in creating the better Ghana agenda as promise in their manifesto, the NPP on the other side does not look to be the best alternative, as they are finding it very difficult to put their house in other, while shouting from their roof top quietly working from outside against the govt. to collapse. This agenda is politically wrong since voters are expecting the opposition to provide the best alternative for policy direction and governance in their entire media encounter in all political and social discourse.
Now how is 2016 going to play out after the TUC national demonstration? Is NPP happy and is NDC comfortable? I would be back
AYM KUKAH
