Public frustration with the New Patriotic Party’s time in government was driven more by daily hardship than by policy failures, according to NPP communications team member Lawuratu Musah-Saaka.
Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, Musah-Saaka said governments are often judged not by the intentions behind their policies but by how those decisions affect the everyday lives of citizens.
“When you are in power, you see the things you put in place,” she said. “But the real issue is whether those efforts are sustainable and whether they actually make life better for the ordinary Ghanaian.”
She explained that several factors that went against the NPP administration under former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo were rooted in lived experiences rather than political messaging.
“Some of the things that worked against us were not just issues on paper,” she said. “It was how people felt those decisions in their own lives.”
Musah-Saaka pointed specifically to the domestic debt exchange programme, popularly referred to as the haircut, noting that images of elderly bondholders picketing deeply damaged public confidence in the government.
“When the elderly were seen protesting, it struck a nerve,” she said. “That went strongly against us while we were in power.”
She added that voters tend to assess governments based on basic survival needs rather than political explanations.
According to her, the key question many Ghanaians ask is how government decisions connect to essentials such as water, food, electricity and internet access.
“There has to be a clear connection between what a ruling party is saying and how people survive day to day,” she told host Moro Awudu.
Musah-Saaka warned that the same standard used by voters to judge the NPP could easily be applied to the ruling National Democratic Congress.
“The same measure that was used against us can be used against the NDC,” she said. “If people feel the same pressures, the same frustrations will surface.”
She stressed that no government is immune from public anger if citizens feel their daily lives are becoming harder, regardless of political promises or intentions.
