NDC ‘STEALS' NPP SLOGAN

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, August 12, 2016

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) appears to have taken the manifesto slogan the New Patriotic Party (NPP) used for the keenly contested 2012 general elections and doctored the opposition party’s Hope (H) video advert for its (NDC’s) 2016 campaign.

Changing vrs Transforming

The current NDC’s “Changing Lives! Transforming Ghana!” slogan being used for President John Mahama’s re-election bid was couched by the NPP in 2012, leaving the opposition party bewildered at the brazen attempt by the Mahama-led NDC government to lay claim to its (NPP's) slogan.

The ruling party is expected to launch its “Changing lives. Transforming Ghana” campaign in Cape Coast on Sunday to formally introduce its presidential candidate John Mahama who is seeking another term in office.

The NPP slogan for the 2012 election was “Transforming Lives, Transforming Ghana,” and all the NDC appears to have done is to substitute the word ‘Transforming’ to ‘Changing.’

In 2012, the NDC’s manifesto was titled, “Advancing the better Ghana agenda,” but appears to have abandoned it for the NPP’s ‘Transforming lives!’ which it has gleefully turned into ‘Changing lives!.’

The H Campaign

The NDC, in another brazen instance of ‘stealing,’ has taken the ‘H’ video advert of the NPP and substituted the messages on it with its own messages.

A few days back, a group of young professionals came up with the ‘H’ (Hope) campaign that is seeking to impress upon the electorate to choose leaders who have innovative solutions for the country’s numerous problems, and this one too the NDC has since plagiarized.

Moments after the advert became viral on the social media, the NDC copycats were at work, busily splicing and inserting voices as part of President Mahama’s second-term bid.

They gullibly started off by disclaiming the original H-Campaign video in their very own plagiarized version, then proceeding to affirm everything else in the original video.

Interestingly, when the H-Campaign started, the same NDC activists attempted to bastardize it by saying the ‘H’ stands for "Hopeless."

When the HOPE video hit them, they turned around to edit it and use it for President Mahama and now the HOPE isn't HOPELESS anymore.

NDC Manifesto

The NDC is noted for taking other political parties’ slogans without due credit.

They did it to the then Convention People’s Party (CPP) presidential candidate, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, in the run-up to the 2008 general elections when it (NDC) ‘hijacked’ his ‘Yere sesa mu’ (We are effecting changes) slogan for its candidate, Professor John Evans Atta Mills.

Furthermore, when the NPP said it would introduce the Northern Development Authority (NDA) to help bridge the development and poverty gap between the people of the three northern regions and their counterparts in the south, the NDC quickly brought on board the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).

Since assumption of office, the NDC has tried to implement SADA but the funds were reportedly looted by officials in-charge of the organization and its activities were characterised by allegations of corruption.

Free SHS

Also, the NPP said in 2012 that when elected into office it was going to implement a Free Senior High School policy for all second cycle students to access free education, but the NDC said it was impossible, only to turn around in early 2014 to say it was going to implement the same policy it ridiculed.

In October 2012, then NDC deputy ministers and other top guys - Fifi Kwetey, Kobby Acheampong, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Okudzeto Ablakwa, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, Kpessa Whyte among others - held a news conference in Accra and took turns to run down the NPP’s promise to introduce free SHS in a programme it (NDC) called ‘Setting the records straight.”

Copy Cat

NPP Presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has always maintained that he was part of the originators of the entire idea as contained in the party's 2008 campaign manifesto, and that the NDC was good at copy work.

“The NDC also came out during the heat of the elections to promise northerners of the Savanna Accelerated Authority, which is my original idea of the Northern Development Authority, being changed for SADA,” he said in 2014.

In 2012 when the NPP came up with a slogan, “People matter, you matter. Change now, move Ghana forward - Building a free and fair society of opportunities and hope for every Ghanaian,” the NDC came attacking and said it belonged to it.

The NPP quickly abandoned that slogan and brought in “Transforming lives! Transforming Ghana!”

Yoofi Grant

Coordinator of the NPP Manifesto Committee for the 2012 elections, Yoofi Grant, recounted on Facebook recently how the NPP came up with the ‘Transforming Lives!’ Transforming Ghana’ slogan.

“So...I took a trip down memory lane and made a pit stop at the NPP’s Manifesto of 2012.....hmmmm it’s like it was just put together yesterday, and even more relevant now than it was then...and I also observed the stark revelation of the NDC adopting what the NPP put together and yet very unable to put it together.

The manifesto was titled, TRANSFORMING LIVES, TRANSFORMING GHANA.

“Today the NDC is talking about TRANSFORMING GHANA, probably picked without apologies, from the NPP manifesto after relentlessly fighting for a prior title the NPP had earlier chosen, ‘PEOPLE MATTER....YOU MATTER,’ but what hit me even harder was that it seemed the NPP manifesto was written then for now as things have gotten worse.......so I took a few passages out to post here.”

Nana’s Foreword

In the foreword of the NPP’s 2012 manifesto, its leader, Nana Addo, had said among other things that “Our transformation agenda simply means changing our systems, processes and outcomes to that of a modern country where things work for all.

“It comprises transforming our economy from its pre-independence structure to a modern 21st century economy, one driven by knowledge, value addition and industrialisation that will create jobs. We will also transform our infrastructure so that it works for our people and supports rapid economic growth and improves the quality of life in our communities. We will modernise our agriculture to increase productivity to feed our people and our factories.”

“We are offering a transformation programme that will put our dear country on the path of peace, opportunity, and prosperity for generations to come. 

By transforming the economy, promoting good governance, respect for the rule of law and proudly serving you, the people of Ghana, we will significantly transform and improve the quality of our lives. We need to transform our dear country to move Ghana forward. We need to transform Ghana into a good society that gives to the Ghanaian, a good life.”