NDC DEFEAT: MAHAMA WAS A VICTIM OF PROPAGANDA, LIES,DECEIT,HALF TRUTHS AND ELECTORAL MANIPULATION

This was what George Orwell said about political propaganda: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectful,and to give an appearance of solidity to pure mind” Dresden James said : “When a well packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations,the truth seen utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic”.

Happenings in the country since this administration took over and comments emanating from the masses including people who voted for the Npp, confirm my assertion. What Hon. Adwoa Safo said on the video going round,was what inspired me to put together this piece. Hon.Adwoa Safo was among the minority MPs who vehemently opposed the acquisition of the world bank loan for the construction of the school she was claiming credit on the video. She and her colleagues on the minority side described the loan as “Pad loan”. Parliament voted on that particular loan because of the tough stance the minority took. We heard the current President on why we are graduate unemployment rate continue to increase, his change of position on galamsey mining in the country, the senior minister’s statement that the fundamentals of the economy is strong, praises showered on the former communication minister and his team by the current communication minister, attempts to touch the heritage fund. We hear of complaints upon complaints coming from traders, farmers etc.The BOST issue is still pending, judges have had their taste of the new order,workers are being transferred based on their surnames, nurses picketing etc. Traders have started wailing over the controversial flat VAT rate, the controversial $2.25 bond is still hanging on our necks,and the Vice President who told Ghanaians that borrowing is sinful, just signed a $19b loan facility with China and courageously gave the loan a surname of his choice ( leveraging) to cover the obvious shame. Today Ghana is the victim of propaganda: because some of us were and are still not intellectually competent.More than anything Ghana needs effective citizens competent to do their own thinking and assessment of promises. When the former President met party folks at the trade fair, he touched on this propaganda: issue and used how Adolf Hitler used Joseph Goebbels to manipulate the subconscious instincts of the Germans, to support his advice.Joseph Goebbels declared that, ” if you have to use lies to propagate your cause, you would have to repeat it more often than possible and use the established mainstream media to turn it into a publicly acceptable truth”. A key CIA informer, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al Janabi, admitted he lied about his allegations that Iraq had weapon of mass destruction. He proudly announced that he would lie again to bring democracy to the people of Iraq. That is how propaganda is used to shape the thinking of the masses including intellectuals and those in the academia.

Untruth spreads sooner than truth and people were misled by extremist elements within the Npp who peddled false rumours across the country,tarnished image of the government to gain power. Highly intelligent people,some people in the academia etc either deliberately or unconsciously accepted the lies thrown out by these hawks as truthful and used their platforms to give them credibility. Tribalism guided the thinking of some of our people including people who claim to be servants of God on earth. People printed leaflets of petrol filling stations,mansions etc and linked them to appointees of government only to apologise to the victims after they’ve been exposed. The President respected views expressed by the public and openly reprimanded his appointees who involved themselves in unethical deals. This disciplinary stance he took were mischievously twisted by his opponents to paint him and his government as corrupt. What are we seeing today? The country is gradually returning to the culture of silence period, the media have become surrogates of the government,the fear to criticise the administration for obvious reasons, state institutions have become appendages of the administration,Intel agencies have metamorphosed into agents of the administration and its cronies. Pastors and Chiefs who kept the last administration on its toes,have suddenly lost their voices and the few who intermittently speak out,always link their outbursts to deeds in the past to avoid clashes with the current administration.

People downplay the case of electoral manipulation. Some in the NDC vehemently oppose and rubbish news about manipulation of the results and some of these people take this position because of their interest to contest the next internal elections. To accept that the election was manipulated narrows their chances. When defeat comes,executives suffer serious condemnation and that is the situation the current executives find themselves. People wanting to contest them, will continue to skew or narrow the the assessment move to better their chances. The Democrats with all the devices available at their outfits could not stop the Russians, Holland is not using the biometric system in its elections because of the infiltrations going on and most western nations have decided to reverse to the old electoral orthodoxies because of the manipulations going on. Ken Agyepong just hinted Ghanaians that the NPP won the election through dubious means.The BNI is not interested in that when the CIA and other agencies are still digging deeper to find out if the Russians indeed, infiltrated their wires

Gil Courtemanche said “Propaganda is as powerful as heroin, it surreptitiously dissolves all capacity to think” this is what all must consider when assessing the man.

In his own party, people are using the propaganda: theories to work on instincts of some supporters. The truth is that, the NDC’S chances of coming back is becoming clearer Because of what the man did and the comparison Ghanaians have started making vis-a-vis happenings in the country and the ndc supporters and sympathisers are walking on the streets of Ghana chest high because of the performance of its government and the loud cry across the country for his return.

Gentle as he is, he asked the party to blame him for the defeat. That notwithstanding, issues such as, appointees tracing their ancestral roots to contest sitting MPs must stop, MMDCES competing sitting MPs must end, contesting candidates of parties the party enters into alliance with, must end. I saw the President settle feuds between candidates and opponents, I saw him raise hands of opponents on campaign platforms. He had to dispatch his spokesperson to go and beg chiefs who have been offended by some DCEs, I saw his spokesperson sat in a meeting for hours to settle internal disputes. Members of the Think tank groups who defended and helped shape policies of the party, abandoned their platforms to take appointments leaving the academic arena for pro NPP groups to operate filly without obstructions

All those who followed him throughout the campaign and deliberately look on for people to rain their anger on him must change their ways. We all stayed in the morning dew, we slept for 20-30 minutes, we saw tiredness on his face and how he struggled with sleep. Apart from the external propaganda,we all contributed to the defeat. I heard a regional chairman say he received money allocated to his region at 3 am the day of the election. I don’t think we must blame Mahama for that wicked act. We know that political parties are rooted in the communities,yet we deliberately sidelined the grassroots and adopted concepts which are alien to politics. In some areas during the registration of supporters,over 2000 people registered as ndc supporters but during the main election, only 300 voted. Why did the 1700 go. We registered non ndc members and removed names of true ndc supporters to serve our selfish desires.

Summing all up, one can confidently say, with the kind of healing processes the party going through coupled with the failure of the current administration to deliver, the NDC led by Mahama, will definitely recapture power come 2020 .