Mr. John Dramani Mahama, the running mate to Professor J.E.A. Mills, the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has dared Nana Akufo-Addo, the presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to mount a platform and ask the electorate to assess their living condition before they decide on voting for the NPP. "I challenge Nana Akufo-Addo to step on any political platform with the slogan 'Hwe wo asetenamu na to aba', as the NPP used to ask Ghanaians in the run-up to the 2000 elections and see whether the people would go along with the NPP in this year's elections. I tell you he dare not venture to go by that slogan again, knowing very well that his party has woefully failed Ghanaians", he said. Mr. Mahama threw the challenge at a rally at the Techiman Zongo Park after a 10-day campaign tour of the Brong Ahafo Region at the weekend. He said it was incumbent on any government to institute policies that would better the lives of the people but the ruling NPP government had failed in this respect, and urged Ghanaians to vote for the NDC and see a change. According to him, in 2000 the NPP saw nothing good about the infrastructural developments which were undertaken by the NDC, which included the construction of roads, hospitals, school blocks, and went ahead to ask if Ghanaians would eat those development projects. Mr. Mahama pointed out that most Ghanaians had lost confidence in politicians, especially the NPP government, because all the promises they gave before assuming power had not been fulfilled, and that it was only Prof. Mills who could restore the trust of Ghanaians in politicians if he was voted into power to administer the country. "We are fed up with vague promises by the NPP, including Nana Akufo-Addo's promises that he would inject a substantial amount into the northern part of the country to bridge the gap between the north and south", he said. According to him, it was too late for Nana Akufo-Addo to go about telling the people that he would bridge the development gap between the north and south because the NPP presidential aspirant had been with President Kufuor for all these years but failed to give any advice to that effect. Mr. Mahama urged supporters of the NDC to guard against inflammatory utterances during the electioneering and rather co-exist with their political opponents because they were not their enemies, adding that, "it is only by default that they belong to other parties". According to him, it was not true that the NPP started the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) but rather it was the NDC which begun the scheme on a pilot basis and it was stated clearly in its 2000 manifesto to replace the cash and carry system. He also played down on the government's claim that the public basic schools were enjoying free education, saying that, still the pupils were made to pay for other things, including printing fees but when" we come to power, school children will enjoy actual free and compulsory education". Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, the former NDC running mate to Prof. Mills in the 2004 elections, expressed optimism that from the tour of the region it was clear that the NDC would win the December elections because the people had realised that the NPP had deceived them for a long time. The Member of Parliament for Asutifi South, Alhaji Collins Dauda, said the NPP had failed to render accounts of its stewardship to the people, regarding what they said in their manifesto in 2000. Source: Daily Graphic