Why the leaders we elect often mirror our collective values, actions, and political priorities.
Whenever I am asked to compare the texture of democratic governance in the Global North with the peculiar brand of politics in less developed countries (Global South), I defer to the verdict of superior brains.
The government any group of people elect to lead them is the government they deserve, former American President Thomas Jefferson told us.
What about the governments that were not elected, but got to lead their people, anyway?
Did their people deserve them? Most of Africa has a lot to answer for this.
Even democracies that appear less chaotic, like Ghana’s, sometimes have a lot of explaining to do, because our political actors have often borrowed from the familiar script of dictators and pseudo-democrats.
Repeat or reset
As the NPP gathers together to elect a standard-bearer to lead the party to form the next government, the democratic antennas of the Ghanaian electorate have been activated.
Political analysts and neophytes are digging back to assess the misgovernance of previous leaders, and are asking whether Ghana deserved them.
We are alive to the debilitating impact of failed promises, abandoned projects and poor leadership that promised the heavens but delivered nothing.
Ghana has embarked on a collective soul-searching; we stand at the juncture between faith and consciousness.
The options are only two: NPP never again or one more try.
The NPP is also confronted with some soul-searching questions: Are Ghanaians prepared to bring back a government they rejected a year ago by some 1.7 million votes?
Has the NPP been able to put its house in order after the 2024 repudiation?
Are they bothered that the polls are saying one thing, and the party is hoping against hope that the electorate will say another thing?
Finally, will the NPP ever have an answer if President John Mahama appears on the ballot in 2028?
Gradually, but painfully, the party has come to appreciate the reality of where they sit in the ‘past of the future’ of Ghanaian politics.
They appear to be healing from the colossal defeat handed them in 2024, but they do not seem organised to organically coalesce around one person for the 2028 elections.
As a party in opposition seeking a fresher chance with a wiser and more discerning electorate, the NPP does not only need a wannabe candidate; they need an attractive politician who is also believable.
The task ahead of the party, as they go for their delegates conference in January 2026, is either to remain with a familiar but unsturdy pair of hands in Dr Bawumia, or present Kennedy Agyapong as a risky ‘reset’ candidate.
Rotten tomato analysis
The party has a tradition of sticking with one candidate until they win. We saw it in John Agyekum Kufour.
We saw it in Nana Akufo-Addo. Those choices, however, did not come with the certainty of a knife through butter; they have caused defections and divisions.
They have also produced what political watchers have called the ‘Tomato analysis’, where candidates who lost elections are mocked as rotten tomatoes when they seek reelection as the flagbearer.
We saw it in Sunyani when it was alleged J. H. Mensah queried the party’s choice when J. A. Kufour was reelected as flagbearer: “Are we sending the same rotten tomato to the market?”
Last week, Dr Bryan Acheampong, a flagbearer hopeful, exhumed the carcass of the rotten tomato analysis on his campaign tour. The former Agriculture Minister surmised that it may be strategic to send the same cartons of tomatoes back to the market when there were no buyers on the previous market day, but not when the tomatoes are already rotten.
Taking a swipe at Dr Bawumia, Dr Acheampong dug deep into the NPP’s worst defeat in 2024 with Dr Bawumia as standard-bearer. He revealed that the NPP lost in 3,000 Zongo communities, winning only one in Effutu by only six votes.
He also peeled off a nuanced layer in NPP leadership elections, which have always seen flagbearers see their votes increase, even when they lost in the previous elections.
Instead, Dr Bawumia reduced Akuffo-Addo’s 6.7Million votes in 2020 by some 1.9 million in 2024. Dr Acheampong punched harder.
Sankwas five
As the Bawumia and Kennedy Agyapong camps slug it out ferociously, we are served a ‘showdown’ of party secrets, promotion of self-interest, bitterness and tribalism.
It gets dirtier by the hour and more cynical by the day.
In the process, the real policy issues and the campaign messages of the flagbearer hopefuls are buried in the rubble of insults and innuendos that have so far divided the camps of the leading candidates.
Kennedy Agyapong has promised jobs because, as a private businessman, he has an enviable track record of creating several thousand jobs for some Ghanaians.
He has not told us how he intends to create jobs as president.
The last time we heard Dr Bawumia promise jobs, he seemed to be pointing only members of the NPP to a digital platform, which already has a database of active party supporters.
The candidate’s selling proposition is that party members need not apply; jobs are reserved for them on the platform.
What about Ghanaians who do not support the NPP?
How do they get jobs? The former vice-president’s promoters are trying desperately to distance him from the bad economic policies that weakened the cedi under the Akuffo-Addo administration, but they have not told us what Dr Bawumia would do differently when he gets the ‘steer’.
Who gets the steer to drive the NPP into 2028? The polls have not favoured Dr Yaw Adutwum, Dr Acheampong and perennial contender Ing Kwabena Agyepong, three phenomenal politicians who have been described by an Akyem traditional ruler as part of the Sankwas Five.
Let’s see who wears the sankwas crown in 2026.
Tissues Of The Issues
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