Wars are fought and won with superior tactics and intellect, not with bigger muscles. Even in wrestling or boxing, when the size of muscles counts, the brain does not stop working.

To outwit your opponent in war, you need superior brainwork to craft superior strategies and invent weapons. So, even if violence is involved, intellect is still key.

Daring souls are needed to launch attacks, but without sharp minds at the table, daredevils only become casualties with no impact.

Political party leadership needs strategic thinkers. They mustn't appeal only to the party's hawks, who don't need any convincing to stay anyway. The average woman out there, even if not highly educated, would want to see leaders she could point to as role models for her children.

So, the glamourisation of the NPP's shift may be overrated. It may not yield the needed political capital.

The NDC used not to win elections at the polling stations of universities and tertiary institutions. That was the NPP's territory. If you put aside voters blinded by ethnic and other loyalties, the NPP appealed more to those with formal education. The NPP appealed more to the media, civil society, and the middle class.

That is changing, if it hasn't already. The NPP is becoming more of the NDC of yesteryear.

As more and more people get educated and the middle class grows, the NPP should be worried about the NDC's inroads.

Whoever underestimates the voter may be committing a fatal error. The terrain is nuanced, and the dynamics are changing. These factors should count when a party goes to the polls to elect leaders.

Years ago, a certain abrasive Sir John was elected General Secretary of the NPP and was hailed as an antidote to the NDC's General Mosquito (Asiedu Nketia). What his supporters forgot was that Asiedu Nketia is such a serious brain. He may not have a doctor or professor before his name, but he's a strategist. Matching him against a "buga buga" or "by-heart" talking opponent would not do the trick. And it didn't work.

Since Sir John, the NPP has grown to idolise "buga buga" politics as against the intellectualism of its tradition. Some argue that intellectualism doesn't yield the political dividends needed to win power.

But when your party, which used to monopolise victory on university campuses, is losing those constituencies, you should worry because more people than ever are now going to university. The middle class is growing.

Since the NPP remains a political party, not a coup-making entity, it will take superior intellect to plan and defeat the NDC in 2028. Those claiming the party's election outcome is a warning to the NDC may just be tickling themselves and laughing.

The police and the military may have their faults, but they have yet to prove a weakness against any individual or group of political hooligans. "Buga buga" politics has its place, but most voters are not bots. They are not bought by inferior antics.

Superior tactics will ultimately reign. You still need the cool heads with their broad-based appeal to do the magic.