Dawning of reality

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) seems to have run out of ideas as to how to prosecute its campaign towards success in the December 7, 2024 election and has thus, through both its flagbearer and communications director resorted to phantoms, to push a populist idea that if the party does not win, it only means the election has been stolen.

First, former President John Dramani Mahama states in his recent campaign messages that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is conducting fake polls that suggest that the NPP is winning on December 7 when better and more credible pollsters have long predicted an NDC victory.  

Even if those polls organised by foreign interests predict an NDC victory, it must be noted that they also stated that the NDC could win with a new face other than former President Mahama.

It seems the NDC appreciated the portion predicting the party's victory, but rubbished the portion which pointed out that if Mr Mahama was on the ballot, then the party was going to lose.

Converse

On the other hand, Sammy Gyamfi, the party's Communications Officer, formerly the propaganda wing of the party, is alleging that a top military officer has been charged to rig the election in the Ashanti Region, claiming that ballot papers have been printed for the purpose and that the game plan includes ballot stuffing, swapping of ballot boxes and swapping of pink sheets.

As for the claims by the NDC flagbearer that the polls predicting the victory of the NPP are fake and represent the NPP tickling itself to cause laughter, if they are fake, how does that concern the NDC when elections are not won by polls but by actual votes cast for candidates.

More important, how do false polls translate into electoral fraud when that has nothing to do with voters' choices?

Those who have been following the campaign trail of Dr Bawumia will observe he keeps to the policies that he intends to introduce to ensure the sustainable development of the country and jobs for the youth.

The only time he refers to John Mahama is about the fact that he has never been President before and could lead for eight years and would thus have to account for his leadership after four years whereas the former President would have no such account since he has only four years.

Indeed, what Dr Bawumia is saying resonates with the campaign message and strategy of the NDC urging Ghanaians to reject Dr Bawumia because he has never been President and that voters must support John Mahama since he has been President before.

With the press conference of Sammy Gyamfi, if the NDC is not acting with mischief to poison the minds of the people, then they should sue the top-ranking military officer since what he claimed the soldier had been directed to do constitutes serious crimes and he must be prosecuted.

Otherwise, the NDC should not destroy the foundations of our democratic and transparent electoral process with unfathomable, mischievous and ridiculous claims that have a basis only in propaganda.

There are also those independent presidential candidates who are campaigning that the electorate must ignore both the NPP and the NDC because the two parties have nothing meaningful to offer Ghanaians and the duopoly has done more harm than good to the country.

Their hypocrisy must be gleaned and noted from the fact that none of them has a parliamentary candidate.

What it means is that when they win, it is the same discredited NPP and NDC which will provide them with Members of Parliament, hence the majority of ministers of state and regional ministers.

That is what our elders refer to as " kyiri kooko nso wodi ne mma," meaning that water lily is taboo to you, yet you eat its root.

Short memory

The philosophy of the NDC as espoused by John Mahama in the previous election has been that Ghanaians have short memory and that the NPP only uses people of northern extraction to campaign and would never select somebody from that part of the country to lead the party.

All these seem to have been shattered and now the party is resorting to meaningless and baseless irrationality to pursue its path of seeking power.

The only deduction that one can make of these far-fetched allegations and puerile claims is that the NDC does not have intelligent agents to monitor the election at the polling stations and that those foot soldiers and men and women of brawn are incapable of effective election observation and monitoring.

The basic fact in these misguided outpourings of the NDC point to the fact that the party sees massive defeat staring at it.

Let the NDC focus on propaganda, whilst Dr Bawumia remains focused and campaigns objectively to win the hearts and minds of Ghanaians.

When Prof. John Evans Atta Mills burst onto the political scene and keen observers saw he was a man of peace, they referred to him as Asomdweehene.

Now, we are seeing the humility of Dr Bawumia and all the people are calling him Ahobraseehene.