Whether perceived or not, the ruling National Democratic Congress [NDC] seemed to have a problem with managing her communication outfit and propaganda unit. It has nothing to do with the calibre of officers and officials managing both outfits but has a lot to do with the relative absence of synergy between members of the NDC Communication team and government.
Theories have been posited by Political scientists, analysts and members of the party to the almost breakdown of communication within the party whether these reasons are tenable or not.
The biggest indictment on the communication team came from Hon. Martin Hamidu, the sacked Attorney-General and Minister of Justice when he described members of the Communication team in very harsh and denigrating terms.
That notwithstanding, It has been my humble view that the Communication team of the government has done creditably well over the past 3 years in championing the gains made under President Mills-led Better Ghana Agenda in the face of very obvious challenges.
A hostile political environment being polluted by an opposition political party bent on nothing more than spewing spurious lies and concocted stories in an attempt to water down the credible gains made by the government and people of Ghana for political expediency. Amazingly, even elected members of Parliament who are supposed to know better have been worst culprits of the poisonous propaganda which have been intentionally thrown out there even in the face of naked facts.
Many of our media houses have not done the situation any better. Some have moved away from the objectives and ethics of their profession and have turned their studios and programmes into whorehouses of rumours, fabrications and stories that have no sources, bases or any elements of truth in them.
Maybe worse than that, we have party and government communicators who are in a rush to speak to the media as soon as a microphone is thrust into their faces without double checking the facts in order to avoid embarrassing the government when the facts later emerge. We have witnessed cases of this regard once in a while.
Across the country, party footsoldiers, communicators and spokespersons have bemoaned the absence or breakdown of information flow to them as and when they need it and the impossibility of getting direct access to government appointees for important speaking points on their local programmes.
Truth be told, one minister, deputy, propaganda secretary or government appointee cannot pick all phone calls at a time to respond to all issues of varying proportions as and when it is deemed most important by the callers, and that in itself has drawn sharp attacks from our own who have accused the government and party of neglect.
How then do we address these challenges as we glide towards the climax of the presidential and parliamentary elections with the clear strategy in mind to speak a common language, deliver a common message, and promote a common candidate for electoral victory in 2012.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT), provides us with cheap, fast and smart solutions to this inertia that we are yet to fully exploit.
Foremost, the party website must be redesigned and actively deployed as the reservoir of information and this must be done as soon as possible. The Communication outfit of the party must hire smart computer literates who are either members of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) or have been members of this group to work either at a fee or voluntarily at the party headquarters under the supervision of the Director of Communications of the Party. This group will work 24 hours, 7 days in a week to provide up to the minute information on the party and government owing to the differences in the World Time zones bearing in mind our branches and communicators dotted across the world.
The website must have an application that allow access for all regional propaganda secretaries and their deputies including constituency propaganda secretaries to log on with well secured password, and fetch on any day at any time, catalogue of government projects, achievements and projects for use on any programme anywhere in the country. This database must be built as a matter of urgency with inputs from the Director of Policy Monitoring and Implementation at the Office of the President, Dr. Tony Aidoo.
The database will include sections for the uploading of photos, voice and video clips for the sole purpose of facilitating the campaign and the work of all other groups within the NDC within and outside the country. Once we get the information, it would be easy to translate them into local languages to the understanding of the uneducated masses who cannot properly communicate in English.
The availability of such database will help our communicators all over the country understand the issues, get the facts, figures, sources and diffuse the opposition arguments for the understanding of our rural dwellers who seem to be lost in the scheme of things. Many of these persons are uneducated and it becomes easy for any smart propagandist to buy into their ignorance.
This project will pull the breaks on the seemingly divergent and uncontrolled manner in which party and government seem to be selling her message. We might have good and cutting edge stories to sell to the world, BUT when it is not properly coordinated and controlled, it becomes noise in the ears of listeners as the same message is carried in disjointed bits and channels which will fail to achieve the intended objectives.
WE must win the 2012 elections based on issues and how we sell our successes to the electorates as a party and ICT provides a simple, modern, faster and well channelled speedway to addressing the challenges bedeviling the government and party communication team.
The NDC is the party for the masses and we must keep closer to our support base and in more for a resounding victory for Professor Mills come December 2012.
God Bless Our Homeland Ghana.
God Bless President Mills.
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