The Kwesi Botchwey report on NDC’s electoral disaster is cathartic

The huge sigh of relief you just heard came from the thousands of NDC supporters who had waited patiently for Dr. Kwesi Botchway’s post election report which comprehensively looked at the factors behind the party’s humiliating electoral defeat at the hands of the ruling NPP in last year.

Suffice it to say that the report was long overdue. Why? Because the NDC had become a pitiful sight. It couldn’t get over its disastrous electoral loss. Consequently, the party descended into ugly personal battles which pitched party stalwarts against one another.

The infighting and accusations that usually follow such poor electoral performance had grown to intolerable levels, and the party was in danger of losing its soul, its direction. Truth be told, the is in a funk, a post election depression that seems to have no end in sight.

So, it goes without saying that the report is timely, and cathartic and is exactly what the party, now in opposition, desperately needs to cleanse its soul. Though contents of the nearly 500 page report have not been publicly released, there is widespread speculation that no single individual was made a scapegoat for the party’s poor showing.

At its core, the Botchway report lays to rest, once and for all, frivolous claims and counter claims that the former president, Mr. John Mahama and his administration were entirely responsible for the NDC’s severe electoral beating.

I take issue with assertions reportedly made by one Dr. Ibrahim Zuberu by a member of the Botchway committee on a radio station in Accra that the former finance minister, Mr. Seth Terkper and the former communication minister, Dr. Omane Boamah are to blame for the party’s defeat.

Dr. Zuberu’s pronouncements are outrageous and highly irresponsible, and do not help the party’s cause at all. You would think that Dr. Zuberu would be cognizant of the divisions in the party and elect to keep his mouth shut.

These two gentlemen, Mr. Terkper and Dr. Boamah should not be tagged with the lousy performance of a party that had become complacent and swollen-headed, and wrongly thought the Ghanaian voter racked by poverty and deep financial problems will swing its way. That did not happen, and the party now finds itself in the minority.

This is not the time to point fingers. Rather the Botchway report presents the party with an opportunity to put the past behind it and move forward with bold initiatives.

What outsiders like me would want the party to do, prioritize, is to fine tune its vast communication machinery. The number of its communicators should be drastically reduced, and those fortunate to be employed as party mouthpieces should the requisite expertise in a variety of fields. It clearly needs communicators who are capable of deconstructing complex issues

Watching the party’s communicators last year prior to the elections trying to sell the party’s message to Ghanaians was akin to watching your baby mouth his/her first words. It was, simply put, a disaster.  And you wonder why the party took such a trouncing at the voting booth.

To regain the support and confidence of the Ghanaian voter, the NDC should come up with a persuadable and comprehensive 2020 campaign platform that will take into consideration the plight of the people at the grassroots level, the marginalized Ghanaian who finds it difficult to clothe, shelter and feed his family, and the growing number of our unemployed young men and women, a seemingly elusive problem that successive governments have failed to adequately address.

The NDC has a lot riding on its shoulders; it can ill-afford to fail. Ghanaians need a viable opposition party that is capable of giving the ruling party a run for its money.