To Kwame Alomele, the selection of a flag-bearer is no big deal. You can choose a crow as your running mate and still win at the polls. You can also choose a prince and lose flat. But in a political climate with new-found powers of discernment and political tongue-speaking, the selection of a flag-bearer has become an issue.

The choice of National Democratic Congress (NDC) running mate for the December polls has thrown the political permutations and combinations into various realms of higher algebra. What the NDC has also been forced to reckon with is the Azorka factor. No doubt, Nana Akuffo Addo is waiting patiently for Atta Mills to make a mistake.

Sofo Azorka is only a potter at Tamale Market, but has more political influence than most Ghanaian politicians. He leads a group known as the 'Azorka Boys', who believe in the ideals of ex-president Jerry Rawlings. They think that the NDC is Ghana's best hope.

The Azorkas also think that old boy John (The Baptist) Atta-Mills will best do with a Muslim, preferably Alhaji Mumuni who partnered the Baptist in NDC's last electoral disaster. They indeed think the Muslim factor is crucial to NDC's electoral victory.

The wrong thing about the Boys is that they use strong-arm to discourage dissentwithin their ranks and, among northern constituencies; Some NDC members are said to have fled their homes for fear of being brutalised.

The formation of gangs in Ghana politics is dangerous. In the days of the nationalist struggle for independence when Ghana witnessed the terror of armed gangs like the 'Action Troopers' and 'Action Groupers' who caused mayhem in great measure. The risk of such groups proliferating today is rather worrisome.

Already in the Kumasi area are criminal gangs naming themselves Al Qaeda and Kandahar. If they end up doubling as political-support groups and get funding from political interests, then Ghana's peace is finished. Finito!

Now what exactly does NDC want? Of course votes! Every politician in Ghana today is thinking or day-dreaming about the Zongos alone. Some Zongos have been adopted when they just want to be left alone.

Let me take this opportunity to advise politicians to leave the Zongos alone to think about themselves. They have hard enough of empty promises.

Coming back to NDC, former First Lady, Nana Konadu, stirred the waters by rooting for Auntie Betty Mould and some people have followed it with the slogan - "Atta-Mills won't be his own man". It has never ceased to amaze me.

In fact, two things have never ceased to amaze me. First, is that university students can go as far as sprinkling lavender on the home of their hall master? Where and how they got that quantity of human waste to deodorise the man's home is still not known.

Did the students take turns to contribute their quotas to the entire mass of excrement to bomb the poor master's holy abode and desecrate it in the process? Or did they commission a pan-latrine man to deliver his latest consignment to teach the hall master a lesson in fragrances?

Well, the second thing that never ceases to amaze me is that, someone can found a party and others will tell him to keep quiet in the crucial issues of the party. I find it a bit misplaced. If Jerry Rawlings is the founder of NDC and he is told he cannot have a voice in the selection of the party’s running mate, then he ceases to be the founder!

I am not a member of any political party, but I would be amazed if Dr Busia were alive today and he is told to shut up because what he says will make somebody not become his own man.

Of course, nobody is his own man when you come to think of the whole picture of governance. Presidents are influenced by all manner of people including their wives, girlfriends and concubines, children, kinsmen and even their enemies and adversaries.

Even some Democrats have sought wise counsel from Republican ex-Presidents and vice-versa when it came to pertinent issues of national concern. So in truth, no president is his own man. In fact, every nation is ruled by others other than the President. Even in the choice of ministers, presidents do the bidding of others: That is a reality.

So, to tirelessly keep hitting at Atta-Mills that he can't be his own man, is just not fair to the man. It has even become boring. If Nana Konadu wants a woman to be a Vice-President, what does that have to do with someone else being or not being his own man? Aren't Ghanaians tired of that kind of stuff? People should try something else!

So it came to pass that Betty was juxtaposed with Mumuni and John Mahama. Talking about votes, the factors are even. If Betty as a running mate will appeal to the women, then NDC is a goner, because the women factor is one that cannot be easily jettisoned. For example if three-quarters of women are for you, then you have no electoral problem. The men can go to hell!

My only fear in this respect is whether women will have the confidence of their fellow women. But so far, women in positions have shown toughness. Talk about Immigration, the Police Service and the Judiciary and you are talking about women who can move Ghana forward.

With Mumuni, I think he is okay, eloquent and can add a lot to the Atta-Mills drive. His popularity rating is what I cannot tell. John Mahama is the gentle, intelligent man liked by many. He has a lot of persuasive powers if you listen to him. And for those who think the NDC needs a man who is not over-zealous but can appeal to both male and female voters, then John Mahama is the man.
Atta-Mills is pretending he is currently not confused.

But he is. He needs to be careful. Nana Akuffo Addo, I repeat, is waiting for him to make a mistake.

P.S: As at the time of going to press, John had selected John. Nana Addo can now breathe more freely. But the ball is now in his court.