Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah, has disclosed that the party is preparing to engage the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in a contest of ideas.

According to him, both political parties must give Ghanaians the opportunity to determine who has the competence to manage the affairs of the country in the next election. He indicated that this is because the new national executives of the NDC have the tendency to use propaganda to drive home their message.

Mr Ahiagbah stated that although the use of propaganda may have worked for the opposition NDC in previous elections, the NPP has come to realize the approach used and it’s working to address them by properly understanding the operation of the NDC.

Citing the election of Fiifi Kwetey as the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Ahiagbah stated that his history as the propaganda secretary of the NDC predicts the move of the party. He explained that the NDC is going to misrepresent the situation that the country finds itself in and “concoct stories” around the happenings.

“They’re not going to tell Ghanaians the truth and in fact, they’re not going to tell Ghanaians what they are capable of doing or what they will do. It will all be about blaming government and escalating situations in our country, trying to use violence and fear. That is what they’re going to do because we know what my brother did as a propaganda secretary much of which he has had to go to a vetting and recant.
So, we know the approach and what we are saying is that to counter what they offer, we are going to have to engage them, we are preparing ourselves to engage them in a battle of ideas, which we think that is the way for Ghana. We’ll invite Ghanaians to make a decision between the two who has the superior proposition to help Ghana develop.”
Richard Ahiagbah

Leadership of NDC and NPP

The Communications Director of the NPP stated that the party is being retooled, positioned and ready for elections. With this, he highlighted that people’s stance on the NDC leadership being stronger than that of the NPP to cause an upset in the 2024 elections are simply opinions.

Mr Ahiagbah emphasized that the two parties are mutually exclusive with different orientations and understanding.

“What is true and we can assess is that when you look at the NDC leadership which they just went through putting in place, you see a crop of leaders whose outlook is brash, whose demeanor seem excessively hard in terms of their approach to politics; that roughness to the team they put in place is what probably people are looking at and saying that when you look at the demeanor of the NPP leadership, they’re calmer, calculating and more strategic and that is a comparison people are trying to do.”
Richard Ahiagbah

Mr Ahiagbah underscored that he is by no means “casting a verdict on anybody’s analysis”, but rather demonstrating a rather weak basis for comparison between the leadership of the two parties. He explained that there’s no “equal measure” for anybody to say that one side is strong and the other is weak.

“… It’s not a comparison of apples and apples; it’s one of apples and oranges. I don’t think it’s a serious comparison that amounts to anything.”
Richard Ahiagbah