Lessons For Nkrumahists From Yesterday's Talensi Constituency By-Election

Both the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the biggest opposition party, the  New Patriotic Party (NPP), made it plain to Ghanaians that they regarded yesterday's Talensi constituency by-election, as a dry run, for the 2016 elections.

In a sense they were both right to hold that conviction.

Alas, the violence perpetrated by rival gangs of thugish youths from the NDC and NPP, at Talensi yesterday, is a harbinger of possible widespread violence to come, whichever of those two parties emerges victorious in the 2016 presidential election.

That is why ordinary Ghanaians must reject both parties in the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections - and avoid the violence and chaos associated with those two bitter political rivals during elections in our country.

The sad and painful truth, is that both the NDC and the NPP,  are controlled from the shadows,  by powerful and violence-prone cabals - whose Machiavellian political philosophy is to sell Ghana to the highest bidder: to enable them bankroll party activities across the country, when in power.

Judging by their respective  records whiles in power, Ghana will never be transformed, if either of those two opaque parties wins the 2016 presidential election - as the vested interests to which they are both beholden are only interested in milking Mother Ghana dry: not improving the quality of life of ordinary people in our country.

Egregious examples of the rip-off of Mother Ghana under both NDC and NPP regimes, include: tolerating the creative accounting used by the so-called bulk oil distributing companies, which import dodgy finished petroleum products into a nation blessed with large deposits of oil and gas that also has an oil refinery; and the persistence of the super-ruthless destination inspection companies that do work that can and should be done by the Customs, Excise and Preventative Service, of the Ghana Revenue Authority.

And this outrage, goes on daily in a nation, which is desperate to harness taxes to fund infrastructural projects - but whose selfish leaders prefer instead to (to paraphrase an old acquaintance) fritter taxes away on dissembling bulk oil distributing companies and parasitical destination inspection companies: in return for kickbacks to fund party activities when in power, in order to perpetuate themselves in office.

The question patriotic and nationalistic Ghanaians must pose is: how can Nkrumahists end the continued dominance of the two largest political parties in Ghana, the ruling NDC, and the biggest of the opposition parties, the NPP, in our nation's politics?

Ghana today desperately needs transparent and accountable leaders - dedicated to transforming Ghana for the benefit of all its people.

Unfortunately, it is obvious that most ordinary people still don't see any of the Nkrumahist parties as  credible alternatives, to the NDC/NPP duopoly - which have ruled Ghana in turns since the 4th Republic came into being.

That must change if Nkrumahists are to capture the presidency in the 2016 election.

How then can Nkrumaists change that negative perception about their parties amongst ordinary people in Ghana - and gain their trust sufficiently to win their votes in the numbers needed to enable Nkrumahist candidates emerge victorious in the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections?

From yesterday's Talensi constituency by-election results, it is now clear that nothing short of a full merger of all the Nkrumahist parties, will change the negative perception amongst ordinary people that the Nkrumahist parties, are not  credible alternatives to the NDC/NPP duopoly.

In light of that reality, clearly, there is only one course of action left for today's political progeny of Ghana's first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, to take now.

If the Nkrumahist parties really care about the plight of ordinary people in  Ghana -  and feel scandalised by the fact that under the NDC/NPP duopoly, we have become a dog-eat-dog society, in which the national interest is permanently subsumed under that of vested interests - then they must put aside petty parochialism, and end the pipe-dream that any of the small Nkrumahist parties can ever win a presidential election on its own: and, drawing lessons from the result of the Talensi constituency by-election, move swiftly to unite under the banner of the original party of Nkrumah, the Convention People's Party (CPP).

After the Talensi by-election, the idea of an Nkrumahist alliance-of-equals, in which each Nkrumahist party keeps its identity, but joins a coalition that selects a common presidential candidate for the 2016 presidential election,  is no longer a viable option. It must now be discarded.

It is only a New CPP that unites the present CPP, the People's National Convention, the Great Consolidated Popular Party and the Progressive People's Party, which can legitimately  campaign on Nkrumah's record of achievements - and use his transformational Ghana-first-agenda that focuses on import-substitution-industrialisation, for the development of the national economy, to transform our nation into west Africa's manufacturing powerhouse.

This is the time for all the leading Nkrumahist politicians to be selfless, and demonstrate their unalloyed love for Mother Ghana - by merging all the Nkrumahist political parties into a New CPP. Now. Not tomorrow. That is the biggest lesson the Nkrumahist parties must learn from the results of yesterday's Talensi constituency by-election.