Every game and its rules and that is what the game of politics is all about. In politics, if your political party does not have the numbers, clearly you will lose the elections.

Everyone in this world that wants to face reality will attest to the fact that the economic situation globally, has not been the best since 2020. It has been difficult for every government and makes it easy for opposition parties who have no clue to want to take advantage when in fact they probably would have handled the situation worse than is being handled currently.

The days leading to the Nigerian Presidential elections on the 25th of February 2023, saw an incumbent party the APC that was really struggling to offer renewed hope to the teeming Nigerians. At a point, it became as though it was a done deal for Peter Obi, who had broken away from the PDP Party which is the main opposition Party in Nigeria to form his Labor Party.

The APC which is the ruling government remained focused and strategic in their thinking and remembered that in elections, all that mattered was numbers and so you look at where the numbers are and what you do to get the numbers on your side.The issue of population immediately came to mind in terms of the strategic thinking of the APC Party. They realized that Nigeria is predominantly a Muslim country with their share of Nigerian population running close to 52%. The party then decided to have their Presidential primaries and interestingly, the current Vice President of Nigeria who is a Christian, took part in the elections.The APC party did not settle on him because they knew that the numbers did not favor the Vice President.They needed a Muslim who will be able to get them the numbers from the huge Muslim population.The Vice President Yemi Osimbajo placed 3rd in the primaries with Bola Asiwaju Tinubu winning by a landslide.

One would have thought that with Tinubu being a Muslim and leading the APC, his choice of a running mate would have come from the Christian community. That was not the case because the APC knew that there was no room for error in the elections as the general economic outlook was not something that allowed that. Instead Tinubu chose another Muslim as his running mate to fully take advantage of the huge Muslim population.

The elections took place on the 25th February 2023, the results as declared by the INEC vindicated the strategic thinking of the APC Party in terms of its choice and now Tinubu is the President Elect.

In Ghana, come December 2024, Presidential elections will be held. The ruling party the NPP has a choice to make in terms of who leads them. Ordinarily, the choice as to who should lead should not take anybody a minute to settle on the obvious person.The party however is facing the problem of choosing based on emotions rather than reality.The emotional dictate that is rearing its head in a decision that ought to be simple is as a result of the fact that an opposition leader, who knows too well that with the NPP going by their true self, in settling on who leads them, he that is fighting for the seat of Presidency will find it difficult to win any elections rather in the past threw in a message that seeks to suggest that the NPP is one sided and will not choose people from a certain background and so makes the NPP a one sided party.

The former President who made those comments was only being smart in testing the strategic thinking of the NPP to see whether emotions will overrule common sense. It is important to state that the demography or the population dynamics of Ghana is such that Christians form close to 71.2% of the population. Secondly, the Akans represent the largest ethnic groupings in Ghana.The decision of any serious political party that wants to make any serious gains in any elections therefore hinges on the party choosing someone who is intelligent, competent, appealing, honest and pragmatic from the Christian sect as well as from the Akan stock. I have demonstrated to you how the APC settled on Tinubu. Even with a Muslim population of 52%, they did not miss this common sense approach so how will anybody thinking straight miss the point of selecting a Christian and an Akan in the case of the NPP to lead it when the Christians form close 71.2% of the population.

The opposition party that the former President comes from which is the NDC, has never in their history chosen someone who is a Muslim to ever lead it. Someone should ask the NDC why they as the apostles of religious politics never wants to settle on a Muslim as their flagbearer. In 1992, they settled on Jerry Rawlings, a Christian. In 1996, retained same Jerrry Rawlings, 2000 brought in Prof.John Evans Atta Mills and run with him till 2012 when John Mahama, another Christian was selected to lead the party.The NDC has always elected a Christian because they know politics is a numbers game and that it will just be politically suicidal to settle on a candidate that comes from minority religious group.

The NPP definitely knows the truth behind the various personalities that have been elected to lead it and will not depart from those ways.The NPP knows that majority of Christians and Akans are their base and it will just be politically suicidal to do anything otherwise. I am not sure the party is willing to go into opposition in 2024.The party can easily win the elections of 2024, if it follows the good example of the APC thinking. Elections are numbers game and not emotional business and for those whose emotions override their thinking,their best place is in movies and not real world play.

Sampson Akoto
Email.s-akoto3211@yahoo.com