"Be Vigilant" - Huudu Yahaya

Lens -- A Prof. Mills-led NDC government will pursue people-centred policies with a view to making life more meaningful for the Ghanaian people, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, the Vice Presidential candidate of the NDC has said.

Speaking at a well-attended constituency rally at Town Council Line, in the Ablekuma Central constituency of Accra, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni called on the people of Ghana to judge Mr. Kufuor and his NPP government with the yardstick that the NPP used when they were in opposition, which was to judge the performance of the government by the living standards of the people.

He said the macro-economic gains that the Kufuor regime is touting as its best achievement was attained by sacrificing the comfort and dignity of the people of this country. He made it clear that it is very easy for any government to achieve the kind of macro-economic gains that Mr. Kufuor and his Ministers are boasting of when the government shifts all the economic burdens onto the people, because having shifted the burden onto the people in the name of "full cost recovery", such a government would not be managing the economy, what they would be doing would be selling services to the people of Ghana.

He pointed out that Ghana being a Third World country, the people of Ghana need a government that would manage the economy in a manner that would cushion them from the vagaries of unfair world trade order.

"Managing an economy is not only about macro-economic stability, a good government must strive for a balance that allows its people to live dignified lives, even as it strives for macro-economic stability. That was what the NDC did, and will do when it returns to power on January 7th 2004," Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni assured the people.

He recalled that until the price of crude oil shot through the roof while the prices of cocoa and gold tumbled to historical depths between 1999 and 2000 causing the economy to go into a tailspin, the NDC had managed the economy and attained macro-economic stability, with inflation dropping to an all time low of 9%. He said the macro-economic gains that the Kufuor regime is touting as its most glorious success story, pales into insignificance when compared to the macro-economic gains that the NDC made up to 1999.

He called on the people to compare their living conditions at the time the NDC was achieving these economic feats to their living condition today that the NPP is boasting of similar feats, and judge for themselves if it is not true that the NPP has sacrificed the comfort of the poor Ghanaian to achieve what they claim they have achieved.

"Hwe w'asetena mu ne tu aba," Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni advised the people of Ghana.

The parliamentary candidate, Basha Harsey, outlined his vision for the constituency, saying when voted as the parliamentarian his primary concern would be to advocate the concerns of his constituents. He said he would always be available to his constituents and will not discriminate. "Every person in this constituency, no matter which party he or she belongs to is my constituent, and as the parliamentarian, it would be my responsibility to advocate the concerns of them all. I may be standing on the NDC ticket, but once elected, I am for all the people of the constituency," he reiterated.

The immediate past General Secretary of the NDC, Alhaji Huudu Yahaya, said there is every indication that the NDC is winning the 2004 elections. He however advised the people to be vigilant on Election Day to ensure that the election is not rigged.

Other speakers include the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NDC, Mr. Joshua Alabi, and Ahmed Peter Tee of the NDC Youth Forum.

Meanwhile residents of Town Council Line continue to discuss the massive turnout at the rally, which they described as historic, especially as four constituencies of the NPP, made up of Odododiodoo, Ablekuma South, Ablekuma Central, and Ablekuma North had held a joint rally at that same venue the previous day at which the attendance was nothing to write home about.

Residents insist that the crowd pulled by Reginald Niibi Ayi Bonte and his partner-in-crime, so to speak, in the missing premix fuel saga, Okuley Nortey, together with Deputy Minister Amerley Tagoe and Minister Kwamina Bartels can never compare in size with the crowd that the Ablekuma Central constituency alone of the NDC pulled