Ghanaians will go to the polls on November 7 to elect a new president for another 4-year tenure—and even though this is an election many Ghanaians regard as that defining moment, social media activities of the various political parties participating seem to place Ghana out there as a ‘de factor’ one party state.
Interestingly, the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) is everywhere on social media, aggressively advertising; from Facebook to Instagram via Twitter. Their Ads are all over my feed—while the strongest of the opposition parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) seems to be doing nothing.
It’s worrying that a few months to the elections, the NPP which sort of sits in the conversation as the only hope for a large number of Ghanaians, a plausible alternative to the ruling party is literally dead when it comes to social media advertisement or campaign.
I don’t want to think the strength of incumbency is what’s driving the obvious and perturbing disproportionate social media advertisement or campaign. But whatever the cause is, the NDC and John Mahama are leading the push.
Perhaps, the NPP is flat broke after being in opposition for many years. However, if that’s the case, then it surely shouldn’t be another cry of rigging or robbery when the NDC sweeps the votes as a result of their large campaign budget.
It’s not only a case of social media; even on TV and Radio, the NDC seems to be leading the pack of political parties when it comes to campaign with the President himself (who is the party’s flagbearer) vigorously involved.
This development is somewhat disturbing and any proponent of democracy ought to be worried—if indeed elections are to be free and fair, the electorates must be given equal or close to equal opportunity to make a choice. In the case where the campaign activities of the incumbent political party completely dwarfs that of the others, then that’s a troubling journey towards a ‘de factor’ one party state.
Of course it will be diabolical to blame the NDC for a good work done or for starting the battle early—that’s if the NPP is simply slacking with communication and political outreach. Even if it’s true that the NPP is absolutely broke, the NDC cannot be wholly blamed for this—though it would be a set back to our democracy.
Whatever the case is; it’s apparent John Mahama and the NDC have taken over social media with their campaign messages while the NPP sleeps, or remains busy fighting its own financiers.
November 7 is not many months away;  the fun is that, if the NPP does not step up its campaign game, ‘wo mu b3 te kpa.’ And if that happens, they shouldn’t dare talk to any of us about heading to even the tennis court.

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