Mills draws milling crowds in west

The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills has taken his campaign to the heartland of Nzema in the Western region.

Following a campaign plan that does not consider any part of the country a no-go area for the NDC, Prof. Mills had been in the Eastern and Volta regions before zooming into the Western region.

With Two weeks left for the elections, Prof Mills on his campaign trail, has been explaining to the people the details of his plan to salvage the country out of the negative situation the Kufuor led government has plunged it through their insensitivity and inability to tell the people the truth.

The central message of Prof. Mills' campaign is a call on Ghanaians to heed Mr. Kufuor's advice to Ghanaians to judge the performance of governments by the extent to which their living standards have improved or declined, which Mr. Kufuor captured in his 2000 campaign slogan "Hwe W'asetena mu ne tu aba".

"It would not take me to tell you whether your living standards have improved under this government or not, you feel it better than me, you are the best judges. They told you that petrol that was being sold at ¢6,400.00 per gallon in 2000 was too exorbitant and that the people cannot afford it, only for them to come to power and raise the price of petrol to ¢20,000.00. Is ¢20,000.00 cheaper than ¢6,400.00?" Prof. Mills asked, to which the people invariably respond with shouts of "Sankofa, Sankofa".

"They told you that school fees were too high and that when they come schhol fees would become affordable. How much is school fees today? They said utility tariffs were too high, you tell me, have those tariffs come down or gone up? They said they would create jobs, go and as the workers of Valco and the many companies that have folded up, if their living standards have improved," Prof Mills charged.

Prof. Mills has also been speaking to the NPP's propaganda in relation to the NDC's 'Sankofa' slogan. He said Sankofa means the return to the days of a people-centred policies and the days where the comfort and dignity of the Ghanaian is the prime concern of policy makers. Sankofa, he said, means the return to the days when the people can count on the government to tell them the truth; the days when government told workers that their salaries had been increased, it was indeed increased and government never comes back to use subterfuge to cut down salaries beyond even previously existing levels.

"Sankofa means the return of truth and honesty in governance, transparency and objectivity in governance, the return of the dignity of the Ghanaian. These are what Sankofa means," Prof. Mills had been telling the people.

The significant thing about Prof. Mills' campaign is that every community, village or town that he passes through insists on detaining him to address them; and the crowds that he pulls whenever he stops, even at these informal and impromptu gatherings are just incredible.

"Prof. Mills is on his way to the Castle and there is nothing, absolutely nothing, not even negative propaganda about leaders of the party, would stop him from winning the elections," an elated Kwame Nyameke, a youth activist at Tikobo No1, told The Lens.