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Nana Akufo-Addo was expected to win. In fact, most people predicted ninety percentages and it came as no surprise when he did win with a huge ninety-four per cent. The campaigning indeed brought out the good, the bad and the ugly with many paltering promises, in order to secure the nomination.

Many others worked arduously with the party’s enemies outside, hoping to serve their careers rather than their party they have vowed to see come to power. Thank God at the end it all came out well and at the end of it all, most came out to claim a part of the success. Success, they say, has so many fathers.

But it is not the success of Akufo-Addo or the overwhelming humiliation of Alan Kyerematen that we are primarily concerned with. The outcome of the primaries was obvious. After all it was not even a battle but a training skirmish for the real war which lies ahead in 2016. Ironically, many seem to have forgotten that it was just an internal democratic contest where there should be no losers but all winners. If the NPP failed, it failed because of the abuses and lack of decorum and respect party members failed to show each.

Still, in the midst of the celebrations, there is still talk about chasing people out which sends ominous chills down the spine of those who wish to see the New Patriotic Party (NPP) win in 2016. Obviously, an anti-climax to what should be the grand victory to the democratic process. Let it be told, however, that the emphatic endorsement of Akufo-Addo has only one meaning: the rank and file rejects the politics of anger and division, and, although they may be disappointed with certain aspects of the campaign as well, the hope is the leadership will turn the tide and work to solve party problems in practical, common sense ways.

Party organization and administration is not merely a process that is good for its own sake. Unless a political party organizes to win, it will not win. The political party that contents itself with holding endless meetings and plod along involving a few cronies or everyone in discussions that never lead to action or to victory are doomed to fail again and again. It is not for nothing that the NPP has in most occasions snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The NPP establishment always ends up fighting a two-front war between its own base and their main opponents enabling their opponents to come across as a united front. That has always been the case.

People want to see results. That’s why they get involved. There is a theory (isn’t there always?) that says that people on the fringes would join up if two things are true. First, they must see a potential for either benefit or harm to themselves if the party succeeds or fails. Second, they must see that their personal involvement has an impact on the whole effort. This makes sense. Winning is critical, but if the party is going to win whether members get involved or not – if members do not see their personal involvement as critical – then they can stay home and watch TV.

That is why it is imperative for all those who see the Akufo-Addo mandate as a victory for their selfish ambitions to stop making repulsive comments about perceived internal enemies, question fellow party members allegiance, brag about their unwillingness to compromise, or suggest that the six per cent of their fellow party members who voted against Akufo-Addo are sellouts. Party members should begin to repair their relationship with each other, so they won’t be flabbergasted when unnecessary bickering provides ammunition for their ideological opponents.

Thomas Jefferson believed that, the duty of an upright leader and administration is to pursue its course steadily and to cherish the good principles of opponents. This shows that it takes more than one faction or one political party to make a well balanced party or government. Having at least two opposing views ensures the exclusion of the weaknesses of each, and uses opposing parties’ strengths for one prosperous party or government.

With the election of a candidate settled, the NPP needs to change its approach to internal and external politics—message, tone, technology, strategy – and take a slight course correction. They need to use well-trained activists, improve the base outreach, and stop behaving like crotchety reactionaries who blame others for any woes they may have. A classic liberal party is not supposed to be wired in a way that abhors debate and argument.

They should be embarrassed within themselves at the thought of blaming difficulties on internal enemies. They aren’t victims so the leadership should not allow themselves to get co-opted by revisionists and other extremists, people who just want to fill their pockets and position themselves for future positions. They will destroy the party if they are allowed.

Political parties and elections are about the candidate and the message, yes, but also about the ground game. Party organization is not just a friend thing, not just a minority thing, not just a try and error thing. The fact is any political party or organization that wishes to win should plan to win – design campaigns that work and talk to the actual people affected.

The biggest problem the NPP faces is an identity crisis and involves tone and perceptions, and their stands on issues. Since 1992, the NPP has been overwhelmed with advice to moderate, be evasive, and even abandon their core principles of freedom and liberty, property rights, rule of law and the free market as a necessary prerequisite for winning future elections. That is absurd.

The NPP should be bold to redefine who they are – social democrats or classical liberals/conservatives? The party should re-orient the members on the identity of the party and offer a general orientation to members, citizens and voters on the guiding principles and ideas of the party. We should never forget that Ghana already has one self-proclaimed social-democratic political party; there is no need for another one.

Those who are, or will become, politically engaged should know the different ideological strands. This is relevant not only for defining the NPP’s own political position, but also for evaluating other political positions and eventually for combating them. Changing principles is not a winning strategy. The NPP need to differentiate, not moderate.  Indeed, the main problem is the New Patriotic Party and its leadership. The political outlook is outdated and it’s bogus. So how can the NPP and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo fix it?

• The NPP should stop looking backward at the Kufuor regime. The party has to boldly show what the future can look like with the free market policies that the party believes in. The ideals should be aspirational. The people look for hope

• The NPP should reject the ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ identity politics. The old ideal that ours should be a nation of individuals is the right one, and we should pursue that with vigour. Identity politics is dangerous for a diverse nation like Ghana and the NPP should reject it. The NPP should aim at treating all the people as individuals rather than as members of special interest groups.

• The NPP should stop being the party of no respect. It’s time for a new party where the members talk like adults. It’s time for the party to articulate its plans and visions for the country in real terms. A time has come to stop so called communicators from damaging the NPP with offensive and bizarre comments. Enough of that.

• Stop insulting the intelligence of voters. We need to treat voters as adults and stop dumping down all kinds of ideas and stop reducing everything to mindless slogans. The party should be ready and willing to provide details in describing its views.

• The NPP must be the party of opportunity. The NPP has to be the party that shows all Ghanaians how they can thrive. It should be the party whose ideas will help the middle class, and help more people join the middle class. The party should be a Populist Party and need to make that clear it is the only party that can protect the small-scale businesses, traders, hawkers, farmers and all those millions that are self-employed.

• The NPP should focus on people, not government. The party must stop competing with the social-democratic NDC for the job of “Manager of government business,” and come up with ideas that can unleash the dynamic abilities of the ordinary Ghanaian. The party should lead the way with policies that can create prosperity for the individual. The ideals of the party must strive on organic solutions, not big government solutions. The party needs a bottom-up government that fits the liberal free market age. At the moment the country operates an outdated centralized government trying to manage a decentralised informal economy.

• Reduce the control of the social democrats. NPP candidates bend so far to the left they look like comedians trying to get the approval of party supporters during elections. We know that the social democrats are pro-big government, but if you choose that to be the litmus test for winning votes, the NPP will continue to lose votes. The NPP cannot claim to be primarily concerned about the economy and then enact more anti-wealth legislation throughout the country than economic legislation.

• Single issues matter, because all those issues are tied back to the economy Many voters do not believe that property rights are an economic issue, so is the rule of laws, as is lower taxes. Decentralisation and diversity is an economic issue. Education may be the biggest economic issue to some. The NPP should understand that, and know how to tie these issues into the overall economic message of the party platform. The NPP should tacitly acknowledge that this is the right strategy for winning the next election, a strategy that for the past twenty years the party has rejected.

The challenge now is for the NPP to step up their game. The party supporters and ordinary Ghanaians want the feuding factions to bury the hatchet with automatic alacrity. Research shows clearly the ordinary citizens want solutions. They want progress. They want prosperity and security. They want a government working for them. Here are their top concerns:

• One: it’s the economy, hands down. The party that deals with corruption, reins in indiscipline, reduces taxation, and opens opportunity so that jobs are created and prosperity flourishes, will win in 2016.

• Two: Ghanaians are frustrated with a government that cannot seem to do anything. The party that fights crime enhances security, preach an equal opportunity society, one in which the government in power does not see its job as picking winners and losers in the economy will win in 2016. Government spending still does not grow our economy. Higher taxes still does not create prosperity for all. And, more government still does not grow jobs.

• Three: the size of government, government spending, government debt, inefficient government bureaucracy, and corruption in government. Obviously these are monster problems that will not be solved soon. However, the party that presents a clear message articulating a real set of solutions will be the party that earns the confidence of the majority of voters.

• Four: our education system lacks behind and its philosophy is miserably outdated. We should look at de-boarding our high schools and in certain cases encourage secondary schools to run evening programmes so that every child has the opportunity to attain an education. It is very necessary to allow parents to continue and participate in the education of their teenage children.

Finally, the NPP or any other opposition party, for that matter, have been handed a golden opportunity for the 2016 election. Citizens have been clear. It is now time for the NPP to be clear, unified, consistent and effective, reaching out to even those in the NDC who are likewise ready to put country before party.

Meanwhile, to win in 2016 Akufo-Addo should be transformed from a weak and wrong leader to a strong and right transformational leader. He must not allow his staff to run wild or his public image be seen as undignified and soft, neither should he allow his enemies to define him on his past. He must reclaim the lost image of a strong and right leader if he is to be president. He should not allow opportunists to tell him what to do or who his enemies are. They should tell him how to do what he wants to do. Indeed, all those who coddle him and reinforce his worst instincts should have no place around him this time around.

The candidate who has the smartest and most disciplined approach, devoid of opportunism and blatant boot-licking, will win. This means Akufo-Addo should begin to project the image of a father to the party and the whole nation. Fathers embrace all their children and talk to everybody even when they are at fault. Akufo-Addo, if he is to win and run this country, particularly because his party is ‘domo,’ and push for change, must begin to talk to so many people and everybody. He gives other people the right to define him, especially, if he refuses to enter the conversation with his perceived ‘enemies’.

As a matter of fact, most people in this country would prefer to move on and vote for change. In the end 2016 will be a head game as all great contests are. The 2016 elections should therefore not only be a referendum on Mahama and his policies, those who win in the end are those who understand that ideas and policy are all connected in politics.