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“It is better to keep your mouth shut and give the impression of intelligence than to open it and remove all doubt.” – Mark Twain
MONTECRISTO
The defeat of the New Patriotic Party in the December 07, 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections came as bolt from the blue. It was decisive and profound, astonishing even the pollsters who predicted a win for the leading opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) based on the economic circumstances of the people.
It was a typical landslide – even more than a landslide by Ghana’s record from JA Kufour in 2000 and Nana Akufo-Addo in 2016. Indeed, it was emphatic and decisive but also mind-blowing and confusing. Little wonder, the Vice President wasted no time playing the gentleman when his contender was playing stampede on the parliamentary front.
That makes it more turbulent as the Electoral Commission struggle to moderate the terrain that had MPs leading clearly gangster activities. Not even the Police and the Military dared intervene until they boys took their nonsense to the security installations of one major gold mining company. Since then, the situation appeared to have sanitised.
Goats that desecrate the political space
That reminds me of a goat that lived in the next compound at Ejisu Central. It was the oldest he-goat that had fathered several generations of boys and girls that became, over time, Christmas and Easter… for families and equally …for chop bar keepers.
How it loved corn dough…So it was perpetually ensconced at Mame Nkran’s compound where you found quality kenkey. It was skilled in monitoring the situation before it struck, taking a bite and racing away. As you would appreciate, goats are not like pigs or dogs which take food mouthful. Goats nibble off food and ruminate on it for minutes, probably for hours. That’s the epilogue that seemed to be characteristic of the NPP as a political party today.
That notwithstanding, the leadership of the New Patriotic Party, ‘disbanding’ immediately after the elections – particularly the parliamentary – would be adding to the controversy by ridiculing themselves on the voodoo crap.
It appeared that they had made room for security and monitoring as well as intel strategies. The political heads in charge of security, together with the NPP party heads in charge of research and intelligence. That’s where the blame should be going.
Unfortunately, we have a lawyer General Secretary and Chief Executive pointing to voodoo and the esoteric or spiritual. That’s unnerving. It leaves party people more confused than resolved to reorganise.
But this is the report we had from the media that should worry the party chiefs themselves and elders as well as the communicators and National Executive Council.
The report indicates that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has attributed its humiliating defeat in the December 2024 general elections to what it describes as a spiritual influence. According to the party’s General Secretary, Justin Frimpong Kodua, there were inexplicable occurrences on the day of the election that suggest a spiritual dimension to the outcome.
Mr Kodua highlighted the unusually low voter turnout among NPP supporters across the country, a situation he believes cannot be explained by conventional means.
In an interview with Ashh FM, excerpts of which are shared by a Facebook user named Yaw Koshievi, he (Justin Kodua Frimpong) attributed the party’s poor performance in the elections to various factors, including spiritual influences.
“It was as though our members decided not to vote,” he remarked. “In all sixteen regions, it was as if NPP supporters had made an agreement not to cast their votes. This is highly unusual and cannot be attributed to regular political reasons.”
Why wouldn’t people go out to vote?
During the interview, Kodua expressed concern that some pastors who traditionally offer spiritual support to the NPP, had withdrawn their backing due to internal tensions and anger.
Again, why would pastors or traditional rulers, for that matter, withdraw their support if not on the basis of perceived greed and arrogance at party or Executive level? But that’s a question the overconfident party chiefs to respond to.
Also ridiculous was Justin Kodua’s appeal to the pastors who intercede for the party. According to him, “A lot of spiritual machinations occurred ahead of the 2024 elections. Things took place in the spiritual realm, which I believe influenced the outcome. Many pastors and women of prayer, who should have been praying for us, withheld their support because of anger, and that definitely impacted the results.”
The undeniable fact was that Rev. Owusu Bempah, a well-known prophet and previous NPP supporter, had publicly prophesied that the party would suffer a major defeat, even going so far as to claim that spiritual forces would ensure the party’s defeat.
His prediction came true with the NDC flagbearer, John Mahama, winning the election by a significant margin.
NPP communication deficit
The fact is that the final results of the election, confirmed by the Electoral Commission on December 9, 2024, saw Mahama securing 6,328,397 votes, or 56.55% of the valid votes, while his closest rival, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia of the NPP, received 4,657,304 votes, or 41.61%.
The NDC also triumphed in parliamentary elections, claiming 183 seats to hand the NPP just 88 seats.
Deadbeat into 2028
Instead of sticking to the facts, the NPP Chief Executive, have since, together with colleagues been piping voodoo tunes, instead of squarely taking the blame for making noise in front f cameras, without pushing supporters to go and vote or motivating apparatchiki to do what has to be done.
The communication gaffe has since been the centre of more controversy for a party known for its appointment or election of strong, vibrant and aggressive General Secretaries, particularly Dan Botwe and Agyenim Boateng.
Mr Justin Kodua, it is becoming evident might not have another opportunity to lead the NPP, nor National Women’s Organiser Kate Gyamfua and, indeed, National Organiser Nana Boakye, if response to the defeat by apparatchiki and ordinary party supporters, as well as party delegates, is anything to go by.
