The dynamics of modern day politics are such that strategists and smart thinkers are needed to have the desired results when it matters most.
There can be many political strategist and smart thinkers but those people must have an additional quality that many politicians do not have in modern politics.
Votes harvesting is what lots of politicians lack, although, they may have the right thinking and strategies in the political turf.
One person in modern Ghanaian politics who has strategies and is smart in thinking politically and in addition can harvest votes for his political party is Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh.
The Manhyia South Member of Parliament popularly called ‘Napo’, who is also Ghana’s Energy Minister, from his humble beginning in mainstream politics has grown a huge political asset for the Elephant Family, the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Napo’s ‘wizardry’ was in full flight during the 2020 elections when he rolled out his strategies and extra ordinary political thinking to help the NPP to secure victory in order to have a second term in office.
Within the NPP, Dr. Prempeh went all out to help some Members of Parliament (MPs) who were on their way out of Parliament because their constituents felt that they had not served them enough.
It took the then Minister of Education to tour number of constituencies to educate voters on why some of the MPs seemed far from them and helped the electorates to understand that national assignments were mainly the reason why some MPs do not visit their areas regularly.
The singular mission to save some MPs took Napo to lots of area across the country and he succeeded in educating people on the need to retain hardworking MPs.
Fast forward, the 2020 elections was highly seen as the acceptance or rejection of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s Free Senior High School (Free SHS) and that was where the Manhyia South MP proved to the whole world what strategic and smart thinking could do in modern politics.
As the Education Minister, the game was on his shoulders and what has been achieved in the education sector, especially on Free SHS must be articulated to prove that indeed the flagship programme of the party has succeeded and therefore the government has been fair and honest to Ghanaians.
Leading the onslaught as the Minister of Education, Dr. Prempeh had a campaign team that were on top of issues bothering on the education sector and countered almost all the packed propaganda against the education sector.
Those who doubted the authenticity of the Free SHS had their minds freed because of the work that Dr. Prempeh and his team did in the run up to the 2020 elections.
Floating voters, especially first time one were fully convinced with the honesty of the education minister because in all his campaign, he accepted that there were teething problems associated with the education sector but they would be dealt with accordingly.
In all his discourses, Dr. Prempeh told the true story about how his government and party have been able execute programmes and projects that have improved the education sector, although there were more to be done and that harvested lots of votes for the NPP in 2020.
Today, his deep strategic in politics is paying off again after he was made the Minister of Energy as members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament with him could easily attest to the fact that he treats them with outmost respect and dignity.
MPs from the same party with Napo are also living witnesses of how Dr. Prempeh could save sticky situations in Parliament by reaching out to those across the aisle for consensus building at the Parliament.
From all indications, Napo has strategic and smart political thing and is blessed with vote harvesting game plan that make his presence in politics very unique and amazing.