The flag-bearer of the PNC, Dr Edward Mahama is not convinced the mass of NPP supporters at its Kasoa rally on Sunday was genuine support. In organising its mammoth political rally, the flag-bearer of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Dr Edward Mahama offers what he said did the trick for the NPP: “T-shirt, ten thousand and a lil’ drink.” According to the PNC leader, the campaign of the ruling NPP has rather reduced their followers to utter beggars, a situation he describes as worrying. “That is what I’m so sad about. That you go out there and people have lost their dignity, people are begging… adults, I mean, we were not a beggar nation,” he lamented. Dr Mahama was reacting to a question posed him on Joy Fm on whether his party was moved by the great numbers of people who turned up for the NPP rally at Kasoa in the Central Region. The rally was a symbolic handing over ceremony of the NPP’s flag-bearer mantle from President John Agyekum Kufuor to Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, the party’s presidential aspirant. Supporters of the party turned out in their numbers perhaps to send signals to the other contesting political parties that, they indeed had a big battle on their hands. But Dr Mahama said it was all a sponsored trip, that “if you had that kind of money, even you, can organise such a rally bigger than that.” Earlier, the PNC flag-bearer had been presenting highlights of his party’s manifesto launched over the weekend for the 2008 elections. He said the manifesto touched on all aspects of governance including foreign policy, agric, health, and security. Establishing a background that the only way out of poverty in the country is increasing the productivity of Ghanaians, Dr Mahama said the manifesto proposed increased food productivity, “food enough to feed ourselves and to cut down on the food import bill. “And then from excess food to abundant food, you can go into agro-businesses and link that up with the petro-chemical complex that we hope we’ll be able to generate with the oil find.” He described it all as “networking the country’s resources in a meaningful… lifestyle devoid of poverty, want and the unacceptable evidence of marginalisation and degradation of our people” that the situation seems to be. Listen to an excerpt of Dr Mahama's interview on Joy FM Author: Fiifi Koomson