From last week till now, the opposition National Democratic Congress has been in the news for the usual divisive reasons.
It is either unwarranted attacks against the New Patriotic Party administration and its appointees or the President and Vice-President who have a mandate that transcends party colours.
This time, however, we found the NDC – and various factions of the same party – holding separate meetings with separate agendas. Indisputably, the confusion arises out of leadership into 2024, with the cadre elements saying a big No to the idea that the fabric of unity must be woven around the known flagbearer.
It appears that some elements in the Northern caucus are singing the same notes as their colleagues in the Volta caucus, with the Fante and insignificant Gas singing from a separate hymn sheet.
Message
That the cadres in the party had been signalling to the new breed NDC on the need for Mahama to blend the party’s rich human resources was amplified in the Council of Elders endorsing late Vice-President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur to pair John Dramani Mahama to steer the affairs of the nation then under NDC control.
That diplomatic proposition failed to materialise, and was manifested in several key appointees of the late Jerry Rawlings and late Prof Evans Atta Mills administrations being sidelined in both party and government activities – with more than enough power and voice being ceded to a generation that had little idea about party building and effective campaigning.
In the opinion of the cadre elements in the NDC, despite the remarkable performance that John Mahama and his MPs put up in the last elections, that imperative to blend exuberance with experience is still a conversation that the defeated party and flagbearer teams must tolerate, if sanity must return into the party structures.
National conversation
Since the Mahama advent, serious civil society actors would admit that conversations on national issues have been lop-sided. Apart from Seth Tekper and his deputy, voices in the NDC that matter in substance, including Kwesi Botchwey, Goosie Tanoh, Kunbuor, Dan Abodakpi and Ken Dzirasah, have been muted.
Conversely, voices like those from Asiedu Nketia and Samuel Ofosu Ampofo that make noise, and not enough substance in crucial debate, have overshadowed the political space, numbing the effect of positive political communication on the public in making choices.
From galamsey and ‘public opinion’ regarding the recent election petition case that was reluctantly sent to the Supreme Court, to the compilation of a voters’ register and closure of borders as a safety protocol measure, this new breed faction in the NDC had failed to give us a conscientious view of issues, except nauseous propaganda.
With the voice of evergreen President JJ Rawlings eternally muted, so has been the voice of internal NDC accountability. And we ask where cadre firebrands like Yaw Akrasi Sarpong, Okaidja Adamafio, ET Mensah, Obed Asamoah and Faustina Nelson are.
Way forward
The way forward, in our humble opinion, in enriching national conversation is to first enrich the conversation of unity within the NDC so as to help free and release the abundant talent in conversation in having balanced debate away from the ‘Barking Dog’ propaganda that only wreaks cacophony on our political landscape.
Welcome cadres, welcome NDC national leadership, and welcome, former presidential candidate to the party.
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