Tomorrow is the day the ten presidential aspirant hopefuls justify their inclusion in the selection for the final race slated for November 4, 2023. It is a tough moment for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), which has a history of dividing the party, to the extent of costing them the 2008 presidential election after 17 candidates contested to lead the party.
The NPP could not patch all the cracks created after 2008, which led to – then candidate Nana Akufo-Addo – losing to the late Prof. John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
President Kufuor had managed to build a solid economic foundation after taking over from the Rawlings administration. When President Kufuor, aka Gentle Giant, took over, Ghana was in a dire economic situation and a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC), forcing him to access the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank initiative of HIPC, aimed at reducing the debt burden for heavily indebted poor countries.
The new administration also had to travel to Nigeria to plead for crude because the Obsanjo government had cut supplies to Ghana, due to non-payment and accumulation of debts by the then NDC regime. After signing an undertaking at the instance of Obasanjo, in the presence of his cabinet, that Ghana would not default again, Nigeria restored supply with 30,000 barrels of crude per day on credit for the entire eight-year period.
The Gentle Giant had to redenominate the Ghanaian currency, together with other initiatives, thereby ending his tenure with a growth rate of 6.3% from an abysmal 3.7%.
The NPP had gained the goodwill of the masses, until the flag-bearer contest for Kufuor’s replacement shattered all hopes to break the eight in 2008. Not even the promise by then-candidate Akufo-Addo to introduce a free senior high school could save the party.
Considering the events of the 2008 presidential primaries, the party amended its constitution on August 22, 2009 to ensure that no more than five people competed for the slot at the National Delegates Congress.
Article 12 (5) (b) of the NPP constitution, as amended in 2009, reads: “Where there are more than five contestants for nomination as the party’s presidential candidate, a special electoral college shall cast their votes by secret ballot for the first five contestants to be short-listed.”
The Stephen Ayensu Ntim-led national executives have assured that they will work to bind the party together before, during, and after the crucial primaries to strengthen the NPP even more ahead of 2024.
In the last few months of active campaigning, the aspirants have been carrying the message of their competence in transforming the NPP and the nation at large.
The campaigns have not been without religious and ethnic attacks, as well as discrediting the government, compelling the party to issue several warnings to candidates and their supporters to be decorous.
The events leading to the mode of election and venue selection, which had nine of the aspirants, except the Vice President, Dr. Bawumia, petitioning the party leadership, could be a warning on the wall.
We think it is grievous for aspirants to speak ill of the performance of the government in a subtle move to discredit a particular candidate. None of the aspirants can absorb themselves, since after the primaries they cannot but campaign in 2024 on the records and achievements of the current government.
We think that in the arena of politics, discrediting the government formed out of the party you are spending resources to lead, is like freely arming your opponent to punch you harder.
The opposition would do well to urge you on till you win the primaries, and they would replay your own statements and clips to disarm you in the general elections.
Already, the government is not in the good books of the masses owing to the painful implementation of IMF conditions. The least the aspirants can do is to concentrate on their competence and plan for the country instead of roping in the government.
If the NPP really wants to break the eight in the face of the economic hardship, how it comes out more united after the August 26 and November 4, 2023polls would be the starting point.
