At long last, the Ashanti region NPP has successfully held its Regional Delegates Conference to elect its new executives. Next at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi on Saturday, 27^th February, 2010 the Party will hold its National Delegates Conference to elect new executives to steer the affairs of the party towards the 2012 general elections. The NDC has a leader in the incumbent President of the Republic who announced in Tamale, after their National Delegates Conference, that the campaign for the 2012 election started from the day the conference ended. The question on the lips of most NPP members, supporters and sympathizers therefore is, how soon after Kumasi are we going to elect our flagbearer and by extension leader of the opposition to also start the preparation – planning, organization, finance/fundraising, intelligence, command and control - and finally campaigning toward the 2012 election and put to rest the perceived divisions and ensure peace and unity in the party?

Controlled Chaos is how the segmented, highly risky and dangerous but well planned, organized, coordinated and controlled operations of launching and recovering of aircrafts on top of (aircraft) carriers is termed.

Politics is war without bloodshed and the NDC coming from a military background did break its 2008 campaign into smaller teams, which gave them flexibility, mobility and speed (time). Candidate Mills for example spent 90%+ of his time in his home region Central, to ensure that he did not suffer a third defeat at the hands of his kinsmen which would have devastated him psychologically and maybe ended his political career. The strategy worked … one of the propaganda materials (I am yet to see a copy myself) had a map of Ghana showing Dr Limann from the North, Prof Busia of BA, Gens Afrifa and Acheampong Ashantis, Dr Nkrumah from Western, Gen Ankrah a Ga, Akufo-Addo and Gen. Akuffo from Akropong, Eastern, and Jerry Rawlings from Volta and the Central region (?) which was the only one yet to have a Head of State. Surprisingly, some NPP supporters and sympathizers who are “Fantis” fell for the propaganda - psychological warfare. Meanwhile 11 Constituencies in the Central region were on “fire” and in the end we could not hold on to the 16 seats we won in 2004 and lost exactly half (8) of them. Nationally we lost 31 seats and won 11 … we failed to control the chaos!! 

Structure

Structure is strategy; with the "expansion" and election of Electoral Area Coordinators and Polling Station Executives, the segmentation of the NPP at the local level and the BROKEN CHAIN (of Command) is now complete.

The old way of doing battle – Campaign Teams vs Party Executives from National down to Constituency levels - which resulted in divided leadership  in the past should be over and MUST STOP. For the Presidential Candidate, his Constituency and therefore the front lines and battle grounds are the approx 23,000 Polling Stations and 4,500 Electoral Areas respectively within the 230 Constituencies in the 10 Regions of the country/Ghana.

General Staff

A King, Prime Minister, President, or even a General might be incompetent at war, but a group of brilliant and well trained officers – in strategy, tactics and leadership – on the army’s staff could compensate for his failures. The structure of this body is unfixed: each new Chief of Staff could alter its size and functions to suit his needs and the times. After each campaign or training exercise, the staff would rigorously examine itself and its performance. The general staff would learn from its mistakes and those of others.

The NPP fortunately has written a couple of highly confidential Evaluation and Post Mortem Reports after the 2008 elections; even Dr. Arthur Kennedy’s “controversial” book contains some truth and lessons that we cannot simply shut our eyes over.

To implement his Strategic Vision and also run the 2012 campaign successfully through the party structures, whoever becomes the flagbearer will need a General Staff to liaise and/or work hand-in-glove with all departments within Party HQ.

Directed Telescope 

This is an informal network of friends, allies and spies in various parts of the chain (of command), and elsewhere, to give the flagbearer instant information from the battlefield – Constittuencies and Polling Stations - let him bypass the slow moving chain.

A key function of any chain of command is to supply information rapidly from the trenches, letting the flagbearer adapt fast to circumstances. The shorter and more streamlined the chain, the better for the flow of information. Even so, information is often diluted as it passes up the chain: the telling details that reveal so much become standardized and general as they are filtered through formal channels. Some on the chain, too, will interpret the information for him, filtering what he hears. To get more direct knowledge, the flagbearer might occasionally want to visit the field (Constituency and Polling Stations) himself – or read letters/memos, reports and/or meet personally as many foot soldiers as possible. But in these days of increasing complexity, this can consume too much of his time, hence the need for a “directed telescope”.

Victory in the 2012 will very much depend on discipline and strict adherence to the Party structure – Chain of Command – by everyone, from top to bottom and/or high or low … ex-Ministers, MPs, Ambassadors, current MPs, PCs, Party executives, the middle and working classes, friends, hangers on … it means everybody must go to his/her Constituency, volunteer and work within the Electoral Areas and/or Polling Stations where elections are WON or LOST.

The observance of the structure will free the flagbearer and enable him look at the big picture (strategic vision and objectives) and also cut down on waste of resources ie. money, time, logistics etc.

VICTOR NEWMAN.