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21.01.2009 NPP

Ghanaians will call back NPP - says Nana Akufo-Addo

21.01.2009 LISTEN
By The Statesman

The NPP Presidential candidate for the 2008 general elections, Nana  Akufo-Addo, has expressed optimism that Ghanaians would soon yearn for the party to come back to power after tasting the NDC administration led by J E A Mills and found the difference between the two administrations in terms of development.

He said it is common knowledge that the NPP has the best plan for the nation's development and that there is absolutely no way that Jerry Rawlings" men can measure up to the able-bodied intellectuals in the NPP. "Ghanaians will soon crave for the NPP when they see the true colours and incompetence of the ruling party which will soon be exposed,' he added.

Addressing the media in Takoradi Monday as part of activities marking his visit to the Western Region to thank the people for supporting him and the NPP during last year's elections, Nana Akufo-Addo said the substantial support that the NPP still enjoys from Ghanaians even after its electoral defeat shows that "the Great Elephant Family is the dominant force in the nation"s politics.'

He expressed no doubt that the NPP, which had for many years survived challenges from military, oppressive and autocratic rules would definitely survive this brief period in opposition and come back to power in 2012.

The defeated NPP flagbearer, who obviously could not still fathom why the party lost the December polls, said leadership was yet to conduct a thorough soul-searching exercise to unearth the 'mystery' surrounding that defeat.

In his opinion, that electoral defeat is the narrowest in the history of the country since neither the NDC nor NPP had a landslide victory over the other.

He lamented the fact that the December polls had unfortunately succeeded in dividing Ghana into two and that there was the need for leaders in the country"s two major parties to focus on how best to retain the peace and unity which prevailed during President Kofuor's administration.

Nana assured Ghanaians that the NPP, which strictly adheres to the rule of law, would do all it could to safeguard the country's peace, and that it was up to the NDC to also call its supporters to order.

He also used the occasion to appeal to the teeming members of the NPP to unite and refrain from washing the party's dirty linen in public. This, he said, would help enhance the cohesion of the party.

In an answer to a question regarding the country's current financial position, the national chairman of the party, Peter Mac Manu, reiterated that the NPP did not bequeath a bankrupt economy to the newly elected government and that the party was ready to respond to any allegation levelled against it by the NDC.

Mac Manu accused the Atta-Mills-led administration of using the so-called inherited 'bankrupt economy' as a smokescreen to dodge its numerous promises made to Ghanaians during the electioneering campaign.

The party later in the day held a mammoth thanksgiving rally at the Jubilee Grounds where Obetsebi Lamptey, Gladys Asmah,  Osafo Maafo and Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, the newly elected Member of Parliament for Takoradi, also expressed confidence in the party's return to power in the next four years.

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