Our great Party is still rebuilding and reorganizing after the painful defeat in the 2024 general elections.

A lot went wrong, culminating in our humiliating defeat. This rebuilding process therefore presents an opportunity to address those lapses.

Undoubtedly, the NPP administration rolled out many innovative and life-changing policies to address the pressing needs of Ghanaians.

Despite these laudable initiatives, Ghanaians rejected us at the polls as if nothing had been achieved during our tenure.

Many questions have been raised about what led to this rejection, and they demand answers from our leadership.

In my objective view, one major factor was our inability to communicate our achievements clearly to Ghanaians in a language and manner they could understand.

In effect, this was a failure of communication that has landed our beloved Party in opposition today, where we are grappling with intimidation and harassment.

Indeed, no political party can survive without strategic communication as a major tool for disseminating its policies to the people.

Therefore, the role of communication is integral and cannot be disputed in any form, particularly in modern or contemporary politics.

As the saying goes, one cannot keep doing the same thing and expect extraordinary results. That is exactly the situation we find ourselves in.

Modern political communication is dynamic, and those engaged in it must be regularly updated to ensure success.

From my own experience as a former Tamale South Communications Officer, I faced numerous challenges despite my best efforts.

How can a communications officer at the constituency level work effectively without the necessary resources and capacity building to deliver on his or her mandate?

Admittedly, as part of the ongoing reorganization and rebuilding, several reforms have been introduced in the communication structure of our Party.

It is indeed an innovative and creative approach to elect communication officers from the polling station to the national level.

However, there is still a lot more to be done beyond electing officers at the polling station, electoral area, constituency, regional, and national levels.

Electing communication officers should go beyond that; we must focus on how they will effectively deliver in terms of communication and dissemination of relevant information to the people.

Holistically, they need to be regularly updated to align with modern and contemporary political communication trends.

To make our communication directorate effective and to counter the ruling party, we must be deliberate in our approach to communication.

Moving forward, I wish to suggest the following critical measures to rebrand and position our communication on a sound footing:

1. Organize continuous workshops and capacity-building programs for Party communicators at all levels.

2. Procure modern communication gadgets and tools to aid Party communicators in effective delivery.

3. Engage and involve the youth actively in communication.

4. Ensure remuneration for communication team members.

5. Prioritize and streamline social media communication for the benefit of the Party.

6. Include constituency communication officers in regional communication structures for smooth coordination.

7. Discourage age-based discrimination in the Party’s communication setup.

To conclude, effective communication will play an instrumental role in how we engage the government and the ruling party ahead of 2028.

We must therefore be strategic and deliberate in how we manage our communication. This is a wake-up call to our leadership to consider the above suggestions.

By: Columnist Abdulai Abdul-Razak
Former Tamale South Constituency communications officer, NPP