Dr. Dickson Adomako Kissi: Ambition to retain power beyond 2024
The risk of government in power collapse today, is now a matter of increasing concern. Will the New Patriotic Party (NPP) be one of the many regimes that collapse during their second term, leaving behind many sore grassroots? By collapse I mean drastic decrease in vote size over a considerable area like Ashanti, Eastern and Greater Accra Regions.
Any minor rise or fall of political or economic fortune or conquest by strong opposition party and the dwelling numbers of elite within the ranks of our party must be prevented at all cost.
Many governments including our own NPP in 2008 succumbed to collapse during the 2nd term. The monumental failures of the opposition party will not secure us a win in 2024, until we strengthen our base now or forever pay a more severe painful price.
People marvel at the Israelites when they preferred the agony and slavery they experienced in Egypt to the freedom the Almighty promised. The Israelites may be compared to our party base. God delivered them from bondage yet they still asked for slavery again and again.
Unknowingly, the party base may make undesirable or unrealistic demands like the Israelites as they were being carried to the promise land. Tough and difficult grassroot demands as seen by Moses and Aaron of the old, has been in the human fabric for several centuries.
Leadership has to be more patient and more enduring when it comes to grassroot demands.
Why would Adam and Eve both leaders in The Garden of Eden decide to leave Eden, for the arduous and challenging world we live in today. They had everything good that man needed — free food, free water plus no need to work yet they decided to leave that comfortable environment under the supervision of almighty God.
We who may know better may be blinded by our unforgiving nature and prejudices to allow evil to prevail over good. This should not be the case, it is highly unacceptable. We should be displeased and pained when we see such bad decisions being made.
In despair some key builders of the NPP fraternity may vanish or abandon the great structures they put together in Ghana, USA, Britain, Europe and the rest of the world.
Today I was saddened by an audio that showed serious apathy on the part of faithful members who have toiled hard for the party. I dare say we need to do real soul searching and introspection to rid ourselves of any desires or wishes that would mar our political fortunes as a party in 2024. Ghana truly needs NPP to rule and rule and rule again.
Our ambition must not die in such an unpleasant way. Lurking behind this 2 term political party collapse mystery is the nagging thought: might such a fate eventually befall our own wealthy and prosperous government in power? Will the next generation of the NPP leaders look on and ask the same questions about unintended political suicide.
The process through which we undermine certain words of advice can lead to our collapse. Past collapse tend to follow somewhat similar course: failure to draw near to the grass root, failure to empower more people who qualify on merit basis, improper use of resources, failure to retain and grow the base and failure to adopt to the ever changing political climate.
There is a reason corporate takeovers and change in political front liners are needed at times. It can motivate the grassroot and also make them happier to see certain changes. The seriousness of our problems have to be vigorously debated.
The risk cannot be greatly exaggerated, or conversely under estimated, we ought to use technology to our advantage and embrace more debates. Some healthy competition or changes in front liners will strengthen our base. Upward economic mobility is good for the ordinary NPP member and will in turn strengthen our base to retain power.
We should not be naive to think studying our past performance in 2008 will yield simple solutions, and lessons learnt can be directly transferred to fix the prevailing political dynamics. Please be advised that 2008 voters differ from 2024 voters. We may not like these hard truths but we certainly need to entertain them in order to survive 2024. Both party hierarchy and grassroot need to come together and have more frank discussions.
The ordinary Ghanaian or our voters are now knowledgeable, sophisticated and media savvy. We will need to take extraordinary care moving forward and to pay the needed attention to their basic needs if we wish to retain power. God bless NPP, God bless our country
By: Dr. Dickson Adomako Kissi
Hon. Member of Parliament for Anyaa Sowutuom
