Aldous Huxley, the famous English philosopher and propagandist came up with the theory that the propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.
In many ways, this theory epitomises everything about the politics of John Mahama’s NDC.
Anyone who has monitored the Ghanaian political punditry in the institutional news media and on social media in the last few weeks would be led to suppose that the propaganda machinery of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), is more than enough to win political power in this country.
It’s almost as if political discourse in this our supposedly democratic and civilised nation has succumbed to a plague of propagandism in which a particular political party fight tooth and nail to hold on to what they’ve got, no matter who suffers as a result.
Of course, the propaganda machinery of the opposition NDC has devolved into a pointless internecine politics of attrition.
So much so that, even the inquisitiveness of our traditional party politics have been circumscribed by the unwarranted presumption that propaganda is the way out.
It is therefore no wonder to have woken up to yet another dose of NDC’s mind management tactic of creating a discursive regime of the inevitability of its propagandist politics with a purported audio recording of an NPP stalwart and a certain police officer.
The so-called Alex Mensah tape, plotting for the removal of the Inspector General of Police, is a pure concoction and a propaganda material from the stables of the NDC.
This audio recording of a conversation between a so-called police officer and the stalwart of the NPP in the northern region ought to be dismissed with every contempt that it deserves.
The NDC has a notoriety for black propaganda and this is one of their antiquated antics.
In actual fact, the NDC’s desperate bid to grab power using subterfuge is the reason this so-called audio recording has found its way into the public square.
It is all about the NDC’s desperation to grab political power by any foul means.
They have been at it, and it has been ineffective over the course of time, and yet they have failed to learn the right lessons. They have been employing lies and dirty propaganda as well as well rehearsed jaundiced strategies to win elections but it has always ended in absolute turmoil.
This their latest propaganda could very well amount to dancing themselves lame in rehearsals for a dancing contest they may not eventually take part in.
While the NPP is busy toeing the constitutional path to retain its mandate, those who have truncated the wishes of the majority of Ghanaians have recoursed to mischief and endless subterfuge to continue to hold on to what they know does not belong to them.
From the show of shame in the Gyakye Quayson criminal trial to the drama in their background, both of which they contrived, they have now moved to the circulation of a deep fake audio file aimed at promoting dissatisfaction for the ruling regime.
All these are meant to serve no other purpose than egregious mischief aimed at demarketing the NPP. If the goal is to create a credibility problem, the ploy has failed woefully.
The NDC and John Mahama cannot stop being fraudulent because that is who they are.
It is an open secret that the NDC has been lackluster and incompetent in opposition, and has resorted to propaganda politics.
There is now an unjustified by entirely understandable nostalgia for NDC in light of their short sightedness.
It’s also distressing that even otherwise clear-sighted people who recognize that the NDC is a clear and present danger to Ghana— and that John Mahama and his political creations are core constituents of the conscienceless gang of villains that has no good intentions for Ghana.
The Ghanaian people are too clever to fall for populism and black propaganda of course, but it’s still true that they cannot be seduced by the rhetoric of the NDC. They know better and will continue to reject NDC over and over again.
Ernest Kofi Owusu-Bempah Bonsu (Deputy Director of Communications, NPP)
