Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, one of the contenders for the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) candidature for next year’s presidential elections, has cautioned his co-competitors against bickering and attacking one another, saying that creates unhealthy relationships in the party and sends a wrong signal to the general public. He, therefore, called on candidates using rough tactics to rather concentrate on publicizing what they would offer the electorate, adding that, after all, when anyone of them won the contest, they would still be one in the party and, for that reason, the rest would have to forge ahead and help the winner retain power in tnext year’s election. Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey, who had just finished the first leg of touring the 230 constituencies, was commenting on the support he had so far from the people at the constituency levels, which he described as very remarkable. He claimed that, even though he started his tour just recently, he had acquired between 20 and 25 percent support, contending that none of the contestants had above 30 percent. He was quick to stress that what he needed to do immediately was to build upon that support. Asked what made him a winsome candidate among his challengers, Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey, who was Minister for Tourism and Diasporan Relations, said, "My message to the party is that, we need to retain power. Hence, judge the candidates with their track records to enable the person retain the party in power, and since I have such remarkable track records, I am convinced that I am the best candidate among all the aspirants. Therefore, voting for me is voting back the NPP to power in 2008 because I will lead the party to victory." He said it was when he was both the Greater Accra regional chairman of the party and national campaign manager that, for the first time in the history of the party, it was able to win in the Greater Accra region. That notwithstanding, his critics indicted him for not being able to speak Ga, stressing the irony that, at the time that the party recorded losses in Accra, those positions were manned by people who could speak Ga. Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey emphasised that the people would have to decide for themselves on the basis of track records as to capacity to implement, saying that the most important thing for the NPP as a party now was to re¬tain power. Thus, he said, the people should judge what could happen in the future by what had happened in the past with track records, with what the person had been able to do as the core issue. Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey’s second message to the party was that, "When you are talking to the NPP executives of potential delegates, it is important to communicate to them what it is that you can do for Ghana, and what is the message that you are going to be carrying to the people of Ghana that will be a message that they can buy into, and will help you to win the election. ''And my message is very simple, and that is, in order to realise my vision for Ghana, I have to first take steps to implement programmes that will lead to full employment, that will of¬fer productive jobs that pay a living wage, especially to our young people. I intend to do this by, not just growing the economy, but using, for in¬stance, tourism as a major pil¬lar in that growth because tourism is labour-intensive and generates jobs, jobs, jobs," he maintained. Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey also mentioned ICT and agro-processing as some of the key factors that can turn Ghana’s economy round for development. Source: The Heritage