The National Democratic Congress (NDC) must not be too hard on itself. Yes, far too many fundamental mistakes were made as a result of the impunity that had become a characteristic of the greediest of their regime's hangers-on.
However, having now found itself in the political wilderness yet again, the time has come for the NDC's most honest and principled members to commit to crafting a new vision to secure their party's future - and unity of purpose will be needed for that particular exercise.
Clearly, all the party's current members ought to understand that theirs is not the first governing party to lose power - and that it will not be the last ruling party to lose power in our homeland Ghana either.
The NDC's members must stop being despondent and flaying about giving knee-jerk reactions to every move by the Akufo-Addo administration - and focus their energies instead on what will make their party attractive to Ghanaian voters again going forward into the future.
Whiles it is also understandable for members of a ruling party that has just lost power, to thrash about looking for scapegoats to blame for its defeat in the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections, clearly, that is an exercise in futility.
Nothing will be gained from such negativity.
After all, since the 4th Republic came into being, no political party has been in power continuously for more than eight years - and as we are all aware, there is a constitutional edict stating clearly that no president can stay in power in Ghana, for more than two consecutive four-year tenures.
The truth of the matter, is that after eight long years in power, even if the NDC had succeeded in turning Ghana into a paradise-on-earth by polling day last December, they would still have been voted out of power.
Unfortunately, as a result of complacency at all levels, in reality, the party had lost touch with grassroots-level Ghanaians - most of whom had become disenchanted with the NDC regime.
Power had come to be regarded by far too many party members as a valuable means of profiting from insider-information - and an unmatched political resource to be leveraged for personal enrichment: through kickbacks from sundry sole-sourced public procurement deals.
Alas, by polling day last December, most Ghanaians had come to the conclusion that there had to be a change in government if economic conditions in the country were to improve - and result in better living conditions for the vast majority of ordinary families across the country.
The lesson the NDC's members ought to draw from the magnitude of defeat suffered by their party's candidates last December, is that paying attention to the concerns of ordinary people matters - as does taking cognisance of constructive criticisms of a government's policies make for success in elections in Ghana.
In other words a commitment to good governance principles that drives all members of an administration to regularly find out and give ordinary people what they actually want when in power - in terms of the implementation of government policies that result in the lifting of living standards generally - really does matter for success in elections.
No political party can succeed in holding on to power in Ghana if it becomes a vehicle for the egregious enrichment of a rapacious and privileged urban elite that constantly prospers at the expense of the nation and its people
That is why the NDC must become a political party that is always attuned to the needs of ordinary people at the grassroots level. That is what will guarantee its return to power again someday - eight years hence, perhaps. Possibly.
Post script:
My own personal experience at the hands of some of the people at the Mahama presidency, neatly sums up what the NDC had evolved into, by December 2016.
My thoroughly dishonest cousin Kwame Thompson, and our ex-overseer, Awuku "Red," colluded with Hagnela Mining Company and its assigns, to mine gold illegally in part of our 14-square mile upland evergreen rainforest freehold property at Akyem Juaso, destroying our organic cocoa plantation in the process.
As soon as some of the people at the presidency - who regarded me as an enemy of the state for my criticisms of their hard-of-hearing regime - got wind of it, it became impossible to stop the illegal gold mining and rampant illegal logging accompanying it.
All my appeals to the authorities fell on deaf ears. It is instructive that the illegal gold miners disappeared as soon as the new government took over power on 7th January, 2017.
As it happens, I am in touch with one of the inventors of new toxin-free mining methods resulting from research carried out by the Arizona University's College of Engineering, Dr. Abraham Jalbout, who is the CEO of MetOxs, the spinoff created to commercialise those toxin-free mining inventions.
For patriotic and altruistic reasons, I decided that I would link him up with Abrahim Mahama's Engineers and Planners to introduce their toxin-free mining methods to Ghana's gold mining sector.
The free energy harvesting associated with the new toxin-free mining methods will make the mining industry here very profitable if it is introduced here - and make extra power available to the national power grid on top too. Fantastic.
Yet, in typical NDC fashion, the two pro-NDC journalists I approached to try to get the information across to Ibrahim Mahama, personally, simply could not be bothered because they doubtless did not see anything in it for themselves. Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o.
Consequently, I have now passed on the information to a contact at the Minerals Commission who actually cares about our country and is dead set against public officials who collude and work secretly with illegal gold miners. He will make a perfect new CEO for the Minerals Commission in my view, incidentally.
Hopefully, the information will now be given to the Hon John Peter Amewu, the dynamic new minister responsible for lands and natural resources, who will then take action to get Dr. Jalbout's MetOxs to come to Ghana, and introduce their new toxin-free mining methods here - and save soils, streams, rivers and other water bodies across vast swathes of the Ghanaian countryside from being poisoned by greedy and shortsighted fools.
Incidentally, another research team at Arizona University has invented a concrete substitute that is less expensive and much stronger than concrete, which they have named "Acrete". It is made from waste material such as fly ash.
It has huge potential if introduced here - as it could be used to build a network of tolled concrete motorways countrywide using win-win public private partnerships and new gated green communities consisting of well-designed and well-built affordable houses and blocks of flats. Perfect for providing homes for all Ghanaians needing accommodation.
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