Breaking the 8: NPP must watch ineffective communication - Report

Some political watchers have asked the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to address the ineffectiveness of the Party’s communication strategy if it intends to “break the eight” in the 2024 election.

The NPP is aiming at breaking the two-term (eight-year) rule of governments since 1992, by ensuring that for the first time, the party stays in power for a third term by winning the 2024 election.

However, some political analysts noted that the Party, which struggled to win the 2020 election, as reflected in the current hung parliament, was gradually losing touch with the grassroots.

They said there was a disconnection between the communication machinery of the Government, the Party, its followers as well as Ghanaians in general.

The analysts said that could cost the NPP in the 2024 election if practical steps were not taken urgently to address the communication gap.

Contributing to discussions on the NPP’s goal for 2024 after they elected new leaders, Dr Kwame Asah-Asante, a Political Scientist at the University of Ghana, said: “Breaking the eight for the NPP will be a daunting task.”

He explained that in recent times, the Government and the Party had struggled to defend Government policies and programmes, noting that such a situation was worrying.

Dr Asah-Asante said some major programmes of the Government, which gave the Party popularity in the 2020 election were currently “suffering”.

He said the free Senior High School (Free SHS), Nation Builders Corps (NABCo), school feeding, and the One District-One Factory (1D1F) programmes needed to be looked at and their outcomes well-communicated to the public.

On the issue of the Government going to the IMF, the Political Scientist said that: “As soon as you bring IMF it means there is indiscipline in the system. You can’t even get the courage to say you have done projects. The opposition will surely run you down.”

Dr Smart Sarpong, a Political Researcher, said that it would be difficult for the Party to rule for a third consecutive time due to some factors, including the current economic hardship, corruption, uneven distribution of infrastructure development across the nation and unemployment.

He, therefore, advised the Party to localize its strategies as well as resources to empower those at the grassroots level.

There were also suggestions for the Party to expand its electoral college as part of reforms to make it stronger, and curb monetisation of party elections, and separate party leadership from Government.

Dr Sarpong said: “Widening the Electoral College has always been the best option. It’s unfortunate that here in Africa it is difficult to do it well.”