The National Democratic Congress (NDC), youth group, Forum for Setting the Agenda Straight, is calling on Ghanaians to be mindful of who they elect for president during the December 28 presidential run-off. They said the calibre of the leader, as well as the qualities he brings to the high office of President of the Republic of Ghana are as important as the well-being of the entire nation. Addressing a press conference at the NDC Headquarters on Tuesday to thank the electorate and also the media for creditably discharging their constitutional responsibilities towards building a credible democracy in the country, Fifi Kwettey, spokesperson, said voters must look out for a leader who will not condone criminality, one who will wage a successful war against greed and corruption, and a leader who lives by his word. Again the leader must be someone with sound intellectual capacity and competence. In all these, according to the group, NDC’s Professor John Evans Atta Mills is a better choice than his opponent, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party. The group therefore, has asked the electorate to vote massively for Professor Mills. Below is a copy of the statement read by Fifi Kwettey, who is also NDC’s Propaganda Secretary, who addressed the media supported by NDC’s Deputy General Secretary, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, and Kobby Acheampong. Why Is The NPP So Desperate? Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media and thank you once more for honoring our invitation. Before plunging into the main issues, let us through your respective media, express our heartfelt gratitude to the people of Ghana for the mental fortitude displayed by them in the way they staunchly refused to fall for the monumental lies and empty promises that have been the main hallmark of the NPP campaign. We are happy that our efforts at setting the records straight about the myriads of false claims of the NPP have not fallen on deaf ears. We are glad that we set the records straight about NPP's lies on healthcare, education, the economy, governance, their empty manifesto promises, their hollow claims of being a party of non violence, the moral turpitude of Nana Akufo-Addo and his track record of having through, actions and inactions, opened the floodgates to the current cocaine crisis in our country. Indeed we are gratified that though there was some conspiracy on the part of a few media houses to snuff out the critical issues we were raising, a good number of you were professional enough to grant us the needed platform to reach the people of Ghana. Our job is not complete until we ensure that NPP's citadel of deception and lies is completely exposed and until the NPP understands once and for all, that you cannot deceive all the people all the time. We are gratified that through our dedicated effort, a top member of the now Minority NPP, had a prick of conscience and decided to call Akufo-Addo to order about his lying claims that his government has provided education free at the basic level. It is our hope that after this press conference, another NPP man apart from J.H. Mensah, would also listen to his conscience and speak out to condemn the other plain lies Nana Akufo-Addo has been peddling about his government providing free healthcare etc. One major remark we made repeatedly during our series of press conferences ahead of the 7th December elections was the fact that the deliberate deception of the people engaged in by Nana Akufo-Addo comes from a mindset that believes the ordinary people are not smart enough to see through the lies and distortions peddled by people in power. A mind set that believes that truth does not matter as long as one can use lies and distortions to deceive the people and get hold of political power. Deceit, subterfuge and plain insult to the intelligence of our people is what explains the sudden drop in the prices of petroleum products by the NPP government. So if the NPP was capable of doing this all these months why did they not do so? Why now? It is because the suffering of the masses meant very little to them. After the shock they received on 7th December, they are now resorting to desperate tricks firmly convinced that the ordinary people are not intelligent enough to see through the deception and the trickery. What the NPP fails to realize is that the people of Ghana have not so soon forgotten how the NPP in the year 2000 loudly condemned the 6400 cedis cost of petrol but as soon as it gained power, shot the price up to 10,000 cedis. When will the NPP begin to realize that our people are not fools? The following adage seems lost on the NPP. "Fool me once shame on you for taking advantage of me! Fool me twice shame on me because I should have known better. Fool me the third time, I am a compound fool. Thank God Ghanaians are not compound fools. What else but deceit and trickery will make Christine Churcher go on her knees, shed crocodile tears and pretend to be apologetic as she begs the people of the central region? What else but political ruse and an attempt to pull a fast one on the ordinary people will make the NPP government suddenly decide to release 5000 drivers who have been jailed for traffic offences- drivers whose livelihood has been destroyed and families ruined? What else but political shenanigan will make the NPP at this late hour go pleading with traders whose businesses have been dislocated through its decongestion exercises? What the NPP leadership fails to realize until now is that the people of Ghana need, not crocodile tears, nor political gimmicks, nor desperate vote catching pleas, but a leadership that is genuine, truthful, caring, sensitive and compassionate. A leader they can trust- and in Prof JEA Mills, the leader of the NDC, the new Majority party in Ghana, they have found just what they need. The Desperate Scaremongering Like the Republican Party in the US elections recently when defeat was staring them in the face, the NPP has also resorted to scare mongering. Their agents either overtly or covertly are busy spreading lies that the NDC intends to:

1. Abolish the NHIS
2. Kill Mensah Otabil, close down his Light House Chapel
3. Bomb the NPP office in Ho
4. Collapse companies and sack workers of Zoomlion among others

The simple response to all this is the following: Lies, lies and lies. Ghanaians should obviously not be surprised that the NPP is resorting to these lies. What else can we expect from a party that has consistently lied about all the major issues in this campaign? A party that has claimed it is providing free healthcare when it is that the people have been financing 100% of the NHIS through premiums, through levies paid on goods and services and through SSNIT deductions. What else can we expect from a party whose candidate makes a mockery of the people by promising to build 50,000 affordable houses a year when in eight long years the NPP cannot point to One completed house. NPP Now Insulting Fante Voters In many strongholds of the NPP, settlers have been at the receiving end of threats, insults and intimidation. NPP supporters have once again demonstrated their utter intolerance towards people who do not share their political beliefs. One of the most shocking developments has been the open attack launched against the people of the Central region because they have not voted for the NPP. Gabby Otchere Darko, a close confidante of Nana Akufo-Addo, openly declared on national television that the voting pattern in the Central region showed a tribal voting pattern. Another spokesman of the Akufo-Addo campaign, Titus Glover, insulted the people of the Central region by claiming that the NDC had influenced them with sugar and rice. Other NPP gurus have denigrated the Fantes by claiming that the NDC has bribed them by distributing pre mix fuel to them. Why are Akufo-Addo's henchmen insulting the Fantes in one breath and in another breath sending Christine Churcher to go shed crocodile tears and pleading with them? The people of the Central region have only done what the majority of the other regions of Ghana have done. The NPP has polarized our nation along tribal lines enough and need to be told to stop fragmenting our nation along tribal lines. It is sad enough that the NPP government showed blatant tribal discrimination by closing the nation's eastern border without any notice- a move clearly seen as a desperate attempt to prevent many Ghanaians who live across the border in Togo to come home to vote. So much for a government that claimed it was interested in sending ballot boxes to far places like Afghanistan so that Ghanaians abroad could vote. How curious that the same government is now putting impediments in the way of Ghanaians willing to travel across the border to vote. Desperate Christmas Political Goodies Are Here We are in interesting times indeed. Not only have the prices of petroleum products been slashed by the NPP. Petrol is reportedly being given out free on the streets of Kumasi. That's not all. Unimpeachable sources disclose that the management of ECG has been instructed not to disconnect anyone owing electricity bills between now and the 28th December. For the first time in several months, salaries of public servants is expected to be paid on time this month- some are expecting that some hefty bonus might perhaps be added. Our sources also indicate that a circular has been issued by the Commissioner of the IRS to suspend the collection of all taxes. Additionally we urge you the media to help investigate reports that fishing nets are being distributed freely in the Afram plains and seized wax prints are on their way to being distributed all in a desperate attempt to change the minds of voters. 51% Of Ghanaians and 7 Regions Voted Against NPP? 51% of Ghana rejected NPP's claim to having "Moved Ghana Forward". A majority of 7 out of 10 regions voted emphatically to make the NPP the minority party in parliament. Here is the reason- Ghana knows that the candidate driving the directionless "Moving Forward Train" is not a man into whose hands the destiny of 22 million Ghanaians can be safely entrusted. He is not a leader into whose hands the resources of Ghana can be safely committed. Ghana Wants A Leader Who Will Not Condone Criminality The majority of Ghanaians know that Ghana cannot afford to have as leader a man who condones criminality by:

• De confiscating the assets of an international drug baron.
• Discontinuing criminal cases against drug dealers
• Looking on while three drug queens arrested at the airport vanish into thin air like the 77 parcels of cocaine
• Pushing for the bringing down into Ghanaian prisons of hardened drug criminals justly serving jail term abroad
• Virtually applauding when his government keeps in office the IGP, against the recommendation of a body headed by the Chief Justice, her ladyship, Georgina Woode, when findings are clear that he had compromised his position by virtually wining and dining with cocaine barons
• Nodding in approval when his government refuses to clean up the top hierarchy of the police under whose watch cocaine has not only vanished into thin air in our waters but also vanished in police security in spite of the presence of security cameras and a round the clock security presence.

51 % of Ghana voted for change because they know that the leader they deserve must be a fine man, a God fearing man, a man who has not got any question marks because of having through actions and inactions turned this nation into the cocaine hub it has turned into over the last eight years. Ghana Needs A Leader Who Will Wage A Successful Fight Against Greed & Corruption Our dear nation needs a man who will wage a relentless fight against corruption and exhibit conduct that discourages greed. Not a man who looks on approvingly while:

• The presidency is transformed into a kickback collection centre
• The presidency becomes a means that facilitates the acquisition of multi million dollar hotels
• The presidency is transformed into a visa racketeering centre
• The conduct of government sees to the killing and burial of the acclaimed zero tolerance for corruption
• The blatant sale of the poshest pieces of lands in the prime residential areas of the Accra goes on
• The canker of Monecracy takes hold of every segment of our national life
• While the dangerous "god of property and money by every crooked means" becomes the acceptable norm of our society.

Claim he is a human rights fighter yet have no qualm overseeing the arrest in church of Tsatsu Tsikata, strip the former president of his privileges, do nothing about the kume preko victims and accomplish nothing when Ghanaians in Gambia were butchered to death

Create the misleading impression that all school children are being fed free when less than 10 percent of our school children are being fed

Claim that school children are being freely bused when the truth is that the metro mass transport is in virtual state of collapse

Pledge to transform Ghana into a first world country when his group in eight years has not even accomplished the modernization of the capital city.

Promise to connect railway line from north to south, east to west and to neighboring countries when in eight years, his group has systematically presided over the collapse of the railway sector.

Claim he is a man of peace when every major political contest he has been involved in at the parliamentary level was characterized by mayhem and violence being visited on his opponents

Claim that he believes in Ghana when his government spends a whooping sum to import Ghana@50 cloth from China when our local textile sector is on its knees owing to lack of patronage

And boasts about his belief in Ghana when under the watch of his government, the local rice sector, the local fishing industry, the timber sector, the cotton industry and local poultry sector have all collapsed

In Atta Mills, Ghana has a leader whose word is his bond- who will not mount platforms to deliberately deceive people- who will tell only the truth to our people because he respects their intelligence. Atta Mills' promises to deliver jobs, invest in people, expand infrastructure, provide sound governance that will unite the country and unleash our enormous potential are anchored on his sound moral attributes. Finally Ghana Needs A Man With Sound Intellectual Capacity & Competence A man whose sound acumen will

• Discourage the appointment of an Attorney General who will advise the country to go after 419 scam loans in hairdressing saloons
• Prevent the disgrace suffered through the CNTCI and the recent VALCO scandals
• Ensure justice by preventing a situation where incompetently wrong charges are preferred against criminals found in possession of body parts
• Discourage a situation where our suffering Kayayee are not mocked and insulted by suggestions that, at night when they need a little rest after their burdensome and toilsome daily heavy load carrying routine, night distance learning courses will be organized for them.

In short in Atta Mills, Ghana has a man who can be trusted with the destinies of our 22 million people and our vast resources- a man who is credible and believable- a man who will not allow greed and corruption to consume the land and jeopardize our economic well being- and finally a man with the sound intellectual capacity to steer the reins of governance in the right direction.

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