Isaac Asare, popularly known as Akonoba, a Zonal Campaign Coordinator for Bryan Acheampong, has asserted that the structure of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), particularly the National Youth Wing, has lost its relevance.
He expressed concern that heading into the 2024 general elections, the party’s communication was ineffective and failed to adequately convince Ghanaians to vote for the party.
Speaking in an interview on Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM, he first criticised the current National Youth Organizer, Salam Mustapha, stating that he is not making a significant impact.
He argued that the former National Youth Organizer, Sammi Awuku, set a high standard for the youth wing, which made the party attractive to the Ghanaian youth.
In contrast, the current organiser has lowered this standard, rendering the youth wing largely irrelevant, resulting in young people no longer being interested in associating with the party.
”The legacy of Sammi Awuku at the youth wing, and the hard work and dedication he left behind, is not what we are seeing today. The wing has lost its relevance to the extent that the youth of Ghana do not want to associate with the party,” Akonoba stated.
He then addressed the party’s communication strategy, suggesting that the party had a weak operational structure heading into the 2024 elections.
”Before you win any election, the party’s structure must be robust. But we approached the elections with a weak structure. In 2024, our structures were not functioning. We had a weak structure and weaker communication. I am stating the facts. Our structure was weak; it was one of the causes of our defeat. We had communicators who were speaking for themselves instead of representing the party. They failed to train communicators to effectively articulate the NPP’s message. The communicators were presenting disparate views without a unified strategy.”
Akonoba told the host, Kwabena Agyapong, that the NPP must urgently re-strategise before the 2028 elections if they hope to secure a victory.
He further claimed that efforts to reach the campaign members of the then-candidate of the party were unsuccessful.
He added that the NPP lacked a compelling major campaign message from its candidate, which caused them to lose connection with the electorate.
Akonoba maintained that while the NDC had core messages like the ’24-hour economy’, the NPP primarily promoted digitisation, a message that failed to resonate with Ghanaians.
He concluded that the NPP also failed to cultivate a solid relationship with them media, was selective in its engagement with media outlets, and all these accumulated challenges contributed to their electoral defeat.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana