The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ghanaians knew in opposition is no more the NPP we know now in power. Ghanaians over the years since the inception of our fourth republic have had a very interesting voter behaviour pattern.

When Ghanaian voters experience disappointment with political leadership, it has been the usual ‘keep quiet and suffer’ until the opportunity presents itself to go into the ballot box again to express their disappointment.

The build up to election 2016 saw a little change in that behaviour where voters and the entire citizenry became more aware and interested in government business. This led to a rise of an expressive culture on political issues. The expression of concerns and criticisms of political leadership intensified. Ghanaians did not wait to go into the ballot box as usual to express disappointment there but expressed it openly through platforms available especially the media and it was done without fear or favour.

Although, many can argue that the technological advancements of social media within that era influenced people being more expressive, the matters arising during the period like ‘Dumsor’ which had a wider spread effect as compared to issues in the past that affected only some sections of the populace and for that matter resulting in more interest in government business and the democratic dispensation at the time that had a conducive environment for expression of views and criticisms, I believe that the NPP in opposition at the time was a major contributing factor in that voter behaviour change.

The NPP nurtured our wild inner instincts, undomesticated us and turned us from dogs into wolves. They led the way and reoriented Ghanaians to be very interested in government business and critical of political leadership.

They reoriented us not to accept anything that government presents to us on the face value but interrogate to get details. They reoriented us to speak up and criticise government without fear or favour. They reoriented us to never condone and celebrate government development with an element of corruption.

In fact, they reoriented us to a lot of things including some bad habits like name calling but in its entirety their reorientation improved civic engagements prior to election 2016. It was good that generally voters became more critical and in my opinion, this made the NPP a very effective main opposition party at the time.

However, the NPP we knew back in opposition is not the NPP we know now in government. There seems to be a change in the democratic ideals that they upheld like speaking truth to power, criticism of political leadership and culture of improved civic engagement and activism.

All of a sudden, these things that they reoriented us to know and accept as our new ‘wild’ disposition and voter behaviour towards political leadership and government business needs to ‘tamed’ because they are the ones in the hot seat. It is very unfortunate to see recent developments of a culture of silence in our media (UTV attack by some NPP youth) and a strong opposition towards civic engagement activities like protests (arrest of 56 #OccupyJulorbiHouse protesters).

The NPP must understand this, the wolves they turned Ghanaians into in 2016 can never behave like dogs in 2023. We will continue to be critical of their leadership, speak truth to power until they fix the country as they promised.