We have all been following the ongoing electioneering campaign between the Republicans and Democrats in America. The debates have been heated and uncompromising in all aspects. While the good people of America expect the candidates to address specific needs bordering on their socioeconomic welfare, the focus has often been about private affairs of the candidates. And rather strangely, the candidates themselves do not seem to be helping matters since they are clearly swimming along this tide of totally needless altercations.
But viewing the developments in a perspective of a balanced prism, it is unquestionably evident that the candidate of the Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton, clearly seems to be well-composed, focused and on track in her argument.
On the other hand, Donald Trump has clearly allowed the temptations being churned out by the media to get under his skin; and this has clearly destabilized him.
Similarly, in Ghana, the race which is clearly a two-horse one between NPP and NDC, has not been without the usual heat such periods do generate.
First, it was about presidential debates at IEA. That was swiftly rubbished by agents of the ruling NDC, on the account that no sitting president had ever taken part in the series in the past. And as expected, the heated discussions in the media ensued, and later died a natural death.
Then came the manifesto battles, vis-à-vis why the other party is not ready to release its own ahead of the other. That matter also became a subject for media encounters for a long while, with accusations of others being reluctant to release theirs, for fear of their policies/programmes being plagiarized. So for weeks, scheduled dates of manifesto launches kept being postponed, until the NDC, after running out of excuses, were forced to outdoor theirs.
During the launch, a programme which was supposed to outline keynotes of what was contained in the policy document, the NDC turned the whole affair into heaping of insults on the NPP flagbearer and his running mate. And to make matters worse, a coffin with pictures of the NPP presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was paraded, right in front of President John Mahama and top NDC party/government officials at the function. In the end, they left the venue with absolutely nothing tangible being communicated to the Ghanaian public.
On the other hand, the NPP had its manifesto launch and the programme turned out to be a huge success, vis-à-vis organization, presentations and the sheer volume of crowd that massed up at the venue.
Now, as a ruling government, the convention has always been allowing your work to do the talking about your competence, capabilities, integrity and general performance, while the president simply focus on what he has up the sleeve for the years ahead.
But in the case of President Mahama and his appointees, the focus has rather shifted from their 8-year performance in office to what their main contender, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, cannot do.
These diversionary tactics by the NDC have now hit a snag since in spite of all the vile propaganda being unleashed against the opposition NPP and its flagbearer, the good people of Ghana now can read between the lines. They are now comparing their living standards under the previous NPP government with the present, and it is obvious their minds are made up as to voting out this incompetent NDC government on December 7.
This decision by the good people of Ghana has therefore been mirrored in the kinds of receptions being offered to both Nana Akufo- Addo and Mr Mahama, as they traverse the country on their electioneering campaign tours. We have witnessed occasions where the sitting president has been welcomed with fearless acts of total disapproval on most of his tours by totally disappointed, disenchanted, angry and hungry citizens of our dear country.
It is these clear signs of rejection by the people that are making the president think his message of ‘TOASO’ is not getting down to the people, and therefore has turned around to accuse some rather imaginary “cabal in the media of blocking his transformational message” from getting to the people.
Rather ironically, the NDC government, as a conscious policy, has over the years empowered its operatives to set up uncountable number of Radio/TV stations and newspapers which serve as its propaganda mouthpieces. Again, the party has been extremely generous in making media practitioners who are on its side very comfortable.
Therefore, if the message being sold by the president is not being accepted by the people, then it is obvious the content is not palatable and therefore not as hot commodity as Kalypo is presently.
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