I have received so many telephone calls from many young political animals in the past couple of months. All of them asked me the same question " Is it true you are running for NDC national Propaganda secretary"?

'Yes, I am considering running for the deputy position', I will say to them on the phone. 'Why not the main position? Who else can do it better than you in our generation', They would ask?

I confess; that question gives me a smile. Why not the main position?? Why deputy??

Many of my friends have said to me that they cannot see any new generation political activist, well abreast with old and new media communication skills, more capable of running a propaganda secretariat for the NDC than I can. What a challenge!

Unbelieving of my friends, I decided to embark on the onerous task of finding out if indeed there aren't more qualified people capable and committed enough for that strategic office of communication than I.

I began by asking what basic skills are required to run a propaganda outfit. I found three most important: writing skills, speaking skills, and scheming/networking skills.

Writing skills are crucially required since the mass media - print, broadcast, web portals, new social media etc - provide the channel for propagandists to disseminate their information.

Speaking skills cannot be done without since the propagandist will need to substantiate what he writes through voice speech.

Scheming/ networking skills form the foundation for propaganda since the propaganda scheme of the political opponent is laced with malice and demands an above average mind operating in the third dimension to be able to decipher and counteract appropriately. PROPAGANDA IS A BLOODLESS PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR that aims at either totally annihilating the political opponent or repairing the lethal impact of the political opponent's Propaganda machinery. And this WAR is not for weak hearts or unprepared minds.

Besides, it takes a certain thinking to be able to align your propaganda war forces in scattered patterns, and to undermine the minds and psychology of your opponents.

So: basically, these three qualities combined, the propagandist only need the full support of the party machinery to be effective. On this score, I dare say that, in the past five years, Propaganda within the ruling party has been so ineffective that a certain government and party communications team has taken over propaganda work, and they do so at their abysmal best, to no positive effect.

Still in my quest to find the most qualified candidate for the December congress, I first looked within the office. The current secretary, Richard Quashiga (Hon) abandoned his post two year ago to join the legislature. He will excel at his new job provided that legislating is easier than propagating. I double doubt that anyways. The first deputy, Hajia Laadi (Hon), followed her boss to parliament as MP for Pusiga.

With two Party propaganda officials now in parliament, there remains one deputy propaganda secretary Solomon Nkansah. Naturally, Mr. Nkansah feels like a heir apparent to the main position of Propaganda secretary of the ruling NDC. After all, he is the lover boy of General secretary Asiedu Nketia. He is also the god - son of "uncle Ato", one of the richest men in Ghana today and NDC kingpin.

Unfortunately, god - Son - ism really does not bear propaganda fruits for a political party wanting to maintain power. I have never read a single piece of article authored by Mr. Nkansah as deputy propaganda secretary for the past four years. Mr. Nkansah does not even operate a Facebook account - not because he does not want to but because he lacks the know - how in such hi-tech areas. And I know it for a fact. On this score of writing/hi - tech networking skills, he is counted out in my books.

On speaking skills, Mr. Nkansah specializes in speaking Fante. I cannot imagine that speaking eloquently in Fante can really propagate party policy or program to the entire nation, since Fante is not a lingua Franca. That also provides a deficiency in him. As for the third dimension thinking, it requires writing and speaking skills to manifest. Without the first and second skill, the third does not manifest at all.

I know that It will not be pleasant in the ears of Mr. Nkansah and his surrogates, what I am writing here. However, it is the truth: that he is woefully unskilled and unqualified at this moment for the position of national propaganda secretary of the NDC. And Supporting him is tantamount to endorsing mediocrity. And since I am not in the mediocrity business, I disapprove of him. Having cast him aside in the analyses, there remains no one in the current office until elections are held in December 2014.

What I don't understand is why so far, we have had people opt to run for the two deputy propaganda positions but no one seem BOLD enough to challenge the hegemony of the ruling national executive. And since I don't understand it, I opt to be different.

I have written and published in the past seven years, over a hundred feature political pieces of articles, news paper columns, press statements and conferences, youth manifestos, not to mention new social media publications and constant blogging. These does not include my unpublished manuscripts.

Again, taking the words of my friends, not as flattery, they tell me that I am an adroit writer when I try.

I am not such an excellent speaker, but with practice, I can manage. And if what some people say I have an "evil genius" is anything to go by - what ever that means - then I believe I can think in the "third dimension" and translate that into writing and speaking propaganda.

Besides, as a media man, I am strategically positioned to align more prudently with the conveyors of propaganda.

Since the daunting investigation have yielded no suitable candidate - both capable and committed - to run effective and results oriented propaganda for the ruling NDC, I am left with no option but a moral mandate to take up the challenge and contest the ultimate position to prevent a mediocre propaganda outfit totally incapable of matching the opposition NPP boot for boot in the next general election from emerging.

We can do better. I will do better.

Amenga -Etego Akaabitono SaCut
(Aspiring National Propaganda Secretary, NDC)
www.sacutamenga-etego.blogspot.com