NDC Working As Team — Mills

Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, National Democratic Congress (NDC)presidential candidate, has explained that the active role being played by his running mate, Mr John Dramani Mahama, is to emphasise that "we are working as a team".

"My running mate taking an active role in my campaign is to expose him to Ghanaians and also let them see the jewel in him,” he explained.

Speaking during a campaign tour of the Krowor and Okaikoi North constituencies in the Greater Accra Region , Prof. Mills reminded the gathering that the presidency consisted of the president and the vice-president and that the vice acts in the absence of the president.

He said: “If they have been hiding their vice-president that is their business."

"We must also remember that when a presidential candidate files his nomination, he adds the name and the qualification of his running mate to it".

Prof. Mills debunked claims that he was not medically fit to campaign and had never been to the northern part of the country.

"Tell President Kufuor to check the records. I started my campaign from the north and I will be going there again", he stated insisting that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was always worried and afraid whenever they heard that he was not bedridden but was actively campaigning to win the 2008 elections.

Prof. Mills urged all members of the party to be decorous and never insult President Kufuor for comments he made about him (Prof. Mills) and added: "I am not dead. I am still alive and campaigning. God is my physician. I pray for long life for President Kufuor".

He expressed worry that instead of concentrating on the campaign of the NPP, President Kufuor had rather turned his attention to the NDC.

"You have your team; we also have our team. Why don't you concentrate on your team and how to win the election but rather choose to worry about your opponent's team?"

He said although some political parties were claiming to be campaigning on issues they had shifted their attention to attacks on personalities and warned that "if they want to abandon the issue for personality attacks, they should be prepared for it."

Prof. Mills said that the NPP government had disappointed Ghanaians, because they failed to provide the jobs and proper care for them as they promised prior to their assumption of office.

He alleged that although the nation was rich in resources which could cater for all Ghanaians, President Kufuor and his cronies alone were the people who were enjoying the resources of the nation to the detriment of the ordinary people.

He promised that his administration would share the resources of the nation equally, paying special attention to the poor and the vulnerable.

Prof. Mills promised that if the NDC won the 2008 election it would give back the lands of the Ga people to them and urged the NPP to refrain from the piecemeal approach if their bid to give the lands back to the Ga people was genuine.

He also urged the government to account for the lands of the Ga people which had been used, who used them and the amount of money involved.

Prof. Mills said apart from the fact that Ghana had become a major transit point for cocaine, it had also brought in its wake the tendency for more Ghanaian youth to use such illicit drugs.

He said in the face of all these, the law enforcement agencies were made powerless to fight such drug deals and said an NDC government would empower the law enforcement agencies and provide the political will in the fight against such drug trafficking and abuse.

Prof. Mills said if President Kufuor who had ruled for almost eight years could mount the platform and support Nana Akufo-Addo, what was wrong with former President Rawlings who had ruled the nation for some 18 years to campaign for him?

He also discounted claims by his opponents that when Ghanaians vote for him (Mills) it meant that they had voted for former President Rawlings.

He said the NDC government would build more secondary schools to cater for those who complete junior high school (JHS) but could not gain admission to senior high school (SHS) because of lack of vacancy, and at the same time would build apprenticeship and vocational centres in all districts to provide assistance for those who could not gain admission to SHS.

Prof. Mills said his administration would build cold stores and landing sites around most of the fishing communities to make life better for the fishermen.

Prof. Mills said an NDC government would extend the current School Feeding Programme which covered only 10 per cent of schools, to cover all basic schools as well as provide free school uniform for pupils from poor homes.

Story by Donald Ato Dapatem