Breaking the 8yrs Jinx Requires Extraordinary Candidate - NPP's Salam Mustapha

An Aspiring National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Salam Mustapha says he is overwhelmed by NPP youth Movement aimed to get Vice President Bawumia to lead the Party in 2024 general election.

The youth movement dubbed; "Breaking the 8", Soireenews.com understands is steadily gaining ground across the 16 regions of the country.

The youth believes that the best replacement for President Akufo Addo is Alhaji Mahamadu Bawumia, and with him, the party will govern the country for more than eight years.

Mustapha in a statement said the Ghanaian eight years governance for every political party can be broken through youth-driven.

"To break the 8yr jinx in our political cycle, I'm particularly thrilled that this bold call is coming from the youth of the party. The young people in NPP started this movement which has become the talk of the town".

Hon. Salam Mustapha who is also contesting the party National Youth Organizer Position clearly indicated that the commitment of the NPP youth across the country is astounding and must be encouraged.

Read the Full Statement Below.

Dear Patriots,

BREAKING THE 8! IT WILL TAKE LEADERSHIP

Leadership is everything and everything is leadership. To break the 8yr jinx in our political cycle, will require something extraordinary. I'm particularly thrilled that this bold call is coming from the youth of the party. The young people in NPP started this movement which has become the talk of the town. The 2020 election result is a double-edged sword that will cut either way in 2024, our way or their way. 

To succeed in breaking the 8, it must be youth-driven. The commitment the youth have shown in this enterprise is astounding and must be encouraged. It will take a lot of leadership to stir our way to a third consecutive victory. Thus, we must parade the best of thinkers and strategists to lead us into this stormy way. A few of my opinion:

1. The government is a byproduct of the party. We won the 2016 elections as a party which in turn formed a government. Anytime the party loses an election, the government will be no more. In essence, the party remains the only way to remain in government. This should tell us to make sure that our party is necessarily strong, in terms of manpower and resources to take care of its members.

2. Majority of the people in politics are the youth. There is no contest to this. Therefore, how do we harness the youth for the continuous success of the party? 

3. How do we satisfy our youth and by extension the base of our party, what we call now the grassroots? Are there enough opportunities for them? It's obvious that this is the crux of the matter. Inability to satisfy our base will breed apathy and that will be dangerous to breaking the 8 agenda. What our base wants are jobs. Unemployment remains a present danger and threat to our success. We must be sincere to ours that the formal sector cannot offer the needed opportunities for all of our people, the question is what next? This is where leadership will play a substantial role in thinking outside of the box to deal with the conundrum. I've a few ideas to share but not in public.

Aside jobs for those seeking it, how have we created opportunities for our people who are business-minded? For me, a healthy party is a wealthy party. For us to break the 8, leadership will have to be innovative in setting up its base for business. Our Sub-Saharan politics is based on patronage, this is not a western political system where the best of orators and policies matter. Here, deep pockets matter. Therefore, the more resourceful people we have at the base, the fewer problems will come up to the top. We should create a business support scheme for the party where core members can draw support for their business as funding for businesses is a big issue and especially young people are disadvantaged. But we should take care of our own. 

Further to this, more scholarships, contracts should be the way to go.

4. Let's deal with the issue of greed if we are to break the 8 and leadership is required to do so. Will resources trickle down all the way to the polling stations? Can we set up a monitoring system to ensure that party resources get to the bottom where it's needed? And when resources are given, will it be used for the intended purpose or it will be sat on? Greed is a dangerous element in any setup and especially, a human-driven enterprise like politics, Its consequential effect can be catastrophic. 

5. Party-government relationship is key to the equation. I've already started that, the government is subservient to the party. So, the party will be in an uproar if they feel that they don't have any stake in the government. Once a disconnect is created, the party will not mind losing an election for the contemporaneous effect on the government. Deep thinking leadership is required to manage a delicate balance of interest between party and government. To break the 8, the government has to be more accessible to the base. How government appointees will relate to the base remains a very serious issue and this is where leadership will need to step in and bridge the gap. No government appointee should ever dare say, 'he's not here to do politics' but you like it that politics put you there? 

6. The base, the youth also have a responsibility to both government and party. Honestly, an unrestrained sense of entitlement is as dangerous as the greed I mentioned earlier. The lack of patience and solidarity in us towards the government is not healthy and progressive. The NPP is a political party, we join base on our free will and without coercion, its membership runs into millions all with expectations. Millions of people having different expectations only tell us that it will require some patience to satisfy everybody. We must have a leadership that can inspire confidence in our base that they're not left behind. The behaviour of some of us is also a challenge. The lack of candor and dishonesty is not helpful. Some patriots want to take from everybody. Some also get assistance and pretend not and still attack the government and party for not being helpful.

7. Unity. How united are we? Ab initio, we cannot break the 8 without unity. It's that simple. Can we eschew the fighting and bickering among us? There should be no room for animosity, deep-seated angst, rather, how do we form a unanimity of purpose to move forward? This will be consequential to breaking the 8. 

Fellow patriots, breaking the 8 is a duty call. It's doable. It will require splendid leadership: matured, experienced and selfless. A third term means that more time to satisfy those we have not yet and also make our party, the NPP,  more great and strong as it will be the only party to have achieved this feat. I'm committed to this course with my body, soul, and spirit. What about you!

Kind regards, 

Salam Mustapha 
#SM
#ItsaYouthmovemnt

Ibrahim Nurudeen