Theme Talk: Well on target in Ghana

By Kobby Mensah1 University of Sheffield, UK

Following my previous article in the last November edition of the Political Studies Association (PSA) Newsletter on how the New Patriotic Party (NPP) used its electoral manifesto to segment and targets the Ghanaian political market, this article tries to articulate how the message was carried across to the people. In retrospect, election 2000 really captivated Ghanaians attention than any other elections, hence being hailed as the best elections the nation has ever had in recent memories. This status has generated many rounds amongst academics, journalists and other societies in discussing the various political structures that underpinned its uniqueness and quality in terms of its organization and participation by both political practitioners and the electorates. One of these underpinning structures, I argue, is the newness of political campaigning offered to Ghanaians by the major political parties to effectively engage voters and to out-shine their competitors using political marketing techniques. These techniques were ingenious in Ghanaian context and truly reflected global trends. Although all the parties sought to introduce fresh thinking in their campaigns, however it was that of the NPP, now the ruling party, which was the true cutting edge.

To set the context on why this election is hailed as different, I will like to give a brief introduction of Ghanas election campaigning style over the years until the year 2000.

The author is a final year PhD Student in Political Marketing at the University of Sheffield, UK. He holds a Master of Science Degree in International Marketing. He is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and a member of the Political Marketing Specialist Group (PMSG) of the Political Studies Association (PSA), UK. His recent work is published in the Journal of Identity, Culture & Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue: CODESRIA and has presented papers at various conferences. He could be contacted through the Department of Journalism Studies, University of Sheffield, Minalloy House, 18-22 Regent St. Sheffield S1 3NJ. United Kingdom. Phone: +447534504055 (Email: info@kobbymensah.com).

As a third world country, Ghanas politicians had used traditional social structures to promote their political ideas. They, for a long time until recently, had relied on direct interpersonal communications between political candidates and the electorates, referred to as pre-modern campaign organizations approach by Pippa Norris (2000): From community halls to football pitches to stage political rallies for speeches; to launch manifestos with party volunteers doing the planning for these party propaganda. Traditional newspapers are seen with interesting captions on political rallies and the ritual 1:00 pm radio news bulletins hitting the headlines of political rallies mounted across the country. On the television the story is no different. In the well viewed 7:00 pm news, the nation only sees headlines of such rallies as news items and nothing more. Well, in year 2000 that wasnt the case. A total transformation of campaigning was witnessed to the admiration and entertainment of everyone, from innocent kids to politically savvy adults. This led to majority of people believing that Ghana has come a long way in its democratic dispensation. Not only did broadcasting houses blast news headlines on political rallies, advertising slots were also bought on over 30 Radio stations and 4 TV channels. Thanks to the deregulation policy of the communication industry resulting in the increase of private broadcasting houses. This development led to a different kind of political atmosphere with a sense of national euphoria. The effect was a state of political curiosity than ever before and an eventual voter turnout of about 60.4%, deemed as one of the nations best.

To proceed, it will be appropriate to make few declarations to clear the air on the approach and conclusions of this paper. Since most of political campaigns are less documented, especially in the case of developing countries, I will like to declare that most part of this work rely on parsimonious accounts of personal observations and snippets of information gathered from some quarters like that of www.ghanaweb.com to reach my conclusions. Again I stand to notify that this paper does not reach the conclusion that the NPP party won the elections based on their innovative campaigning, however it asserts that the approach helped them to connect and engage the electorates

with their message till the end of the elections. People believe that NPPs campaign was coherent, well targeted, well articulated, very emotional and above all entertaining with eventual success of getting their message across to the people. The approach also helped them to stay on the issues the people wanted to hear without deviating.

Nevertheless, on the mainstream, it is believed that it was the general urge to change government amongst the people that led to their winning of the elections. The incumbent party at the time - the National Democratic Congress (NDC) - had reigned for 8 years and many of its ministers had served for over 15years since the time of its predecessor, the PNDC when it was a military government. The NPP started the campaign with the appointment of one of Ghanas media gurus, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey who was then the general manager of advertising giant A.P Lintas, as their campaign director. With his experience in marketing and advertising, he slated the partys main campaign theme as the AGENDA FOR POSITIVE CHANGE to reflect on general feel of the people of Ghana. There existed an active expression of national discontent all over the country, especially on the economic performance; mischievous attitudes of some government officials; existence of infamous policies like the criminal libel and sedition laws which stifled the work of journalists and many other issues that people felt were inimical to the society. However, the incumbent party, on the other hand was flying the flag of CONTINUITY with the view that all was well with the people and were in to continue the good work.

As the campaign business took off, the Agenda for Positive change camp quickly identified five (5) clear sub themes that seemed to border on the interests of some powerful and influential segments of the Ghanaian society like the Journalists, Ghanaians abroad, NGOs, the International community and other smaller Political Parties etc on one hand and the usual traditional ways of talking about education, job creation, good health etc in a boxed-up approach for the general public on the other hand. These five clear themes were: a proposed repeal of the criminal libel and sedition laws; forming an all inclusive government; setting up a national reconciliation committee to unite the

people of Ghana divided by events of atrocities committed by some civilian and military governments of the past; passing a dual citizenship bill to ensure that Ghanas diaspora is integrated into the mainstream citizenry for development; and finally NPPs flagship sub theme, implementing zero tolerance for corruption (Kobby Mensah, 2005).

With all these sub themes hitting right on the head of the nail, the NPP skillfully wrapped them and the name of the presidential candidate John Kufour - into one cohesive rhythmic and melodious song for a commercial which was aired on television and radio stations. For newspapers, the words were clearly scribed for people to be able to catch and memorize the lines. The party developed two advertising pieces one they used primary school kids from all corners of Ghana, and the other with people of voting age, to sing the chorus which encapsulated the campaign themes identified above.

In the first instance, the kids wearing school uniforms sung the melodious song, reminding their parents, relations and everyone to vote for the NPP party. Below are some of the lines of the song: ...a nice gentleman with a mission and a vision to save our motherland from oppression and suppressionyou should vote for Kuffour, J. A Kuffour

The emotions and the melodious appeal captured in the song were enough to whip up recall of the partys themes and its presidential candidate. Within days, school children and the youth in general all over the country started singing this melodious J.A Kufour song and eventually the tide caught up with matured people as well. Elderly people were heard singing or better still trying to memorize the song. Similar approach was used with people of voting age across all sectors of the Ghanaian economy coming under one umbrella the Ghana flag singing as if they were responding directly to the request of the kids to vote NPP. In an ensued development, the NDC questioned the ethical dimension of NPPs actions and accused the party of using minors in party politics. Unfortunately the Electoral Commission had no answer because the electoral law had not

made any provision for political advertising. However, one question is clear and probably answered. Are we witnessing the age of pester power in politics? Well, perhaps yes.

Finally in 2004, having tasted power and faced with economic pressures, the NPP party this time in government - couldnt fire similar missile themes as they did in election 2000 but still used innovative approach in campaigning. In todays textually active Ghana, it was the sms and emails that were employed to complement the TV, Radio and the Print media campaigns. All the major political parties made good use of them.

So what should we expect in election 2008? As one of NPPs top presidential hopefuls establishes a research institute for the 2008 elections, is Ghana in for a fully fledged political marketing approach as pertains in UK and elsewhere across Europe and the US? Well, we are yet to see.

References: Ghanas voter turnout in election 2000 (http://africanelections.tripod.com/gh.html#2000_Presidential_Election). Assessed on 5/06/2006 ICTs and elections: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=71293. Assessed on 5/06/2006 Akufo-Addo launches a different kind of campaign http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=102720.Asse ssed on 5/06/2006