– To borrow Lenin’s title of his letter addressed to the Communist Party from exile-
1. The first order of the day is to appoint a "Truth Secretary" whose exclusive job would be to go toe to toe against Richard Quashigah, the propaganda Secretary of the P-ndc. This Truth Secretary will only respond to their propaganda secretary and to no one else.
2. Apart from our MP's, Party Executives, Campaign team members etc, all so called party people who have been going on T.V/radio for the past decade regularly to espouse/defend party issues must be replaced. This means the Gabbys, the Ursulas etc. We need fresh faces with fresh ideas.
3. Nana Addo, if you are serious in winning 2012, please put a gag order on all your "Cousins". They are not to speak, write, opine etc, until after 2012 and beyond. In fact, they are not to speak, write, opine at all, as long as there is a party called NPP in existence. This is not an attempt to “disenfranchise” anyone of his rights to exercise his “freedom of expression”. What is at stake – taking back the Castle- is more important than free of speech on the part of Party sympathizers –“ Cousins” -. If they- the Cousins - must speak, write, opine etc, they must first and always issue a disclaimer that they are not speaking on behalf of the party.
4. Nana Addo, this time around, we don't need "strangers" in the campaign team; we don't need the Databanks, the A. kennedys, the Danquah Institutes, the Larry Gibsons, the Bawumias etc. We need bona fide party people to man the campaign team. We need people who have everything - and not only consultation fees - to lose.
5. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe and his ilk must refrain from writing "such stuff" about Kuffour, - just like the Statesman did - otherwise the NPP should once again, kiss the 2012 elections goodbye. Oh Nana Addo, believe it or not, your "cousins" are your worst enemies. (They don't necessarily have to trumpet Kuffour's legacy but they must refrain from printing any unworthy/negative news about the former President.)
Once again, if Okoampa-Ahoofe and ilk wants to speak, write, opine etc, they must first and always issue a disclaimer stating that they are not speaking for, or on behalf of the Party. Once again, what is at stake – taking back the Castle – is more important than free expression on the part of Party sympathizers- “Cousins”.
6. All novelties or innovations introduced during the ’08 elections must be eschewed. We must go back to traditional and winnable campaign strategies and tactics deployed in the ’00 and 04 elections. Superfluous novelties and innovations such as:
(a) Littering the country with billboards – you sell an idea, you don’t sell pictures of Candidates. Ideas are everlasting. A brilliant idea, well inculcated, out-lives any candidate. Besides, we already have a symbol. If the so called “illiterates” cannot read the Candidate’s name or have not see the Candidate before, at least, they know what an Elephant is and can identify “Osono” on the ballot sheet.
(b) No hiring of expensive polls consultant like Larry Gibson and Co. Polls are a luxury and inaccurate, especially in our land. Just ask Ben Ephson.
(c) No separate finance offices, or a special Communications offices and all the other “luxurious stuff” that will create overlaps and “loggerheads”. We need a “lean and mean” campaign machine. After all, the Party has its own finance and communication offices since ’92.
This is what must be done.
Conclusion:
If the Party follows the six-point plan as laid out above, victory will surely be ours, come 2012. As guarantee, if the Party heeds my advice but still fails to recapture power, I will give up my Ghanaian Citizenship and move to Papua New Guinea.
*Stay tuned for my article “The Party Lost the ’08 Elections because of the Statesman”, coming soon “in the not too distant future”.
Akwasi.A.Afrifa Akoto.