The 2028 election will not be won by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) through endless press conferences, reactive statements and social-media arguments. It will be won through smart agenda setting, intellectual mobilisation, strategic communication and a compelling alternative vision for Ghana.

The uncomfortable question is: Who is setting the agenda for the NPP today? Where are pro-NPP think tanks such as the Danquah Institute, Critical Thinkers International (CTI) and other policy and pressure groups that once contributed significantly to the party’s intellectual and ideological ecosystem? Why have many of these platforms become less visible in shaping national discourse? Is it simply a lack of ideas—or has financial neglect gradually weakened their capacity to research, organise, communicate and sustain public engagement?

And if these institutions are expected to defend the party’s ideas and intellectual interests, who is funding the intellectual machinery required to do so?

There is also a more uncomfortable question: have some party bigwigs deliberately sidelined independent-minded think tanks and pressure groups because they fear institutions that can ask difficult questions, challenge poor decisions and demand accountability? If so, that is political self-sabotage.

A recurring weakness in many political parties is the tendency to remember intellectuals, activists and pressure groups when elections are approaching, only to forget them after electoral victory. Think tanks are courted during campaigns, their research and networks exploited, but once power is secured, many are left without meaningful institutional support. That cycle must end.

The NPP needs intellectual and policy ecosystems capable of researching national problems, developing alternative policies, shaping public opinion and communicating the party’s vision long before the campaign begins.

Press conferences respond to events. Agenda setting creates events, defines debates and determines what voters discuss. Agenda setting must birth communication strategy. It is therefore an error if communication (press conference) rather seeks to birth agenda setting.

The party must therefore invest in its think tanks, empower policy groups, support research, encourage intellectual independence and integrate credible grassroots voices into a coordinated national communication strategy.

The question is no longer whether the NPP has enough communicators. Does it have enough strategic thinkers setting the questions before its opponents provide the answers?

2028 demands more than political noise. It demands ideas, resources, coordination and courage. If the NPP wants to return to government, it must stop treating its intellectual institutions as election-season tools and start treating them as permanent engines of political renewal.

Victory in 2028 will belong not to the party that holds the most press conferences, but to the party that sets the agenda, owns the narrative and offers Ghanaians a credible reason to believe again. We miss this fact and election 2028 will be stillbirth.

By Reindolf Amankwa (Member, Critical Thinkers International, CTI)