In every competitive game, one is required to be smart and objective in order to win. Before you decide to step out to play any competitive game, you look out for things that would give you significant advantage over your opponents. Not only that, you also look out for what can give your opponents advantage over you.

And, when you have objectively assessed and analysed the situation to know your strengths and weaknesses relative to that of your opponents, you then have to put in place a well-tailored-strategy that would help you to actualize your advantage for your victory.

At the stage of strategic thinking and analysis, there are certain things you don’t do. 1) You don’t exaggerate your strengths. 2) You don’t overlook your weaknesses. 3) You don’t allow personal interest to override collective interest. 4) You don’t give room to emotions. Your SWOT analysis must be objectively and dispassionately done. With the above tone set, let me now proceed to shed some light on my beloved monkey-banana-apple metaphor.

Granted you are in a very competitive game of numbers, a monkey-hunting contest in a monkey sanctuary, where the rules are well defined. According to the rules, any team that is able to catch more number of monkeys with a bait than the other in a day, shall be declared the winner.

Per the rules, you and your opponent are entitled to come up with one bait for the contest. Now, your opponent, knowing the nature of the contest, has smartly chosen banana, like he always does in such competition, as their bait. However, you have banana and apple available to choose from.

Unfortunately, you are strangely hearing two voices from two competing interests, one saying choose banana and the other saying choose apple. Interestingly, the senseless second voice that is saying you can use apple to catch more monkeys than using banana seems to have power and cash behind it.

As a result, you seem to be in a false dilemma, albeit you know that if it about catching more monkeys to win the contest, then banana is the best bait. That’s the kind of needless dilemma that confronts most NPP delegates. The choice is clear but that voice backed by power and cash sounds frightening and attractive to some of them, hence the false dilemma.

But, as a prudent monkey hunter, knowing very well that monkeys would prefer a partially-rotten banana to a well-packaged fresh apple any day, would you ignore that cacophonic second voice and go for the banana and compete effectively to win the contest or you would follow cash for the apple and lose the contest even before it begins

Well, the NPP National Nasara Coordinator, Alhaji Futa, has openly said that the next president of Ghana should be a Muslim. As a Muslim, he desires that one of his own occupies the highest office of the land.

Obviously, if Alhaji Futa were to have the power to appoint the next president, he would certainly appoint a Muslim, but unfortunately not even the NPP as a governing party has that power.

The party only has the power, through its delegates, to elect a presidential candidate who would then be sold in a political market for votes. Therefore, the nature of that market cannot be ignored when deciding what to produce to sell in the market.

It goes without saying that there is a contest of interests and desires within the NPP and beyond covertly and overtly relative to who becomes the leader of the party. Whereas some Muslims have interest to have one of their own, some Christians also have similar interest. Only an unrealistic person would deny such interests exist in the country.

That notwithstanding, one significant truth remains unchallenged – Ghana, as a political market, is overly dominated by the Christian population of 71.2%, while the Muslim population stands at 17.6%.

In view of this imperative truth, the overarching interest and desire of every NPP person who means well for the party should be to present a candidate who can overwhelmingly win the majority of the 71.2% indispensable votes for the party. Anything short of that would end in weeping and gnashing of teeth.

My conclusion: the NDC’s automatic candidate, John Mahama and the wife are both Christians from Savannah Region and Bono Region respectively. The two combined can significantly appeal to the 71.2% Christian community for vote than any non-Christian duo. This is a no-brainer.

NPP, the ball is your court, choose your candidate! You either stick to your fantastic winning formula or strategy – the Christian-Muslim ticket, that has won the party power four times or you allow the party to be hijacked by an interest that doesn’t have the objective of winning the 2024 election as a priority.

Before I pen off, let me leave my fellow patriots with this enigmatic word of advice from Hosea 8:7 “They that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind”.

Shalom shalom!
E. G. Buckman