The PPP wants President John Dramani Mahama to know that blatant abuse of incumbency and using state resources for his partisan NDC campaign for the presidency is against the Principle of Incorruptible Leadership. Yesterday in Tamale, President Mahama and the NDC demonstrated their insensitivity to all the concerns being expressed by political parties, religious leaders and civil societies in general about the abuse of incumbency. The NDC and the President have designed and executed a disingenuous way to introduce John Mahama to the people dressed up as a thank you tour for how Ghanaians mourned the passing of our late President. Reports from the northern part of the country indicate that thousands of Ghana Cedis were distributed to Chiefs, other traditional and opinion leaders to travel to Tamale to attend a durbar in honour of President Mahama. We are told of petrol filling stations in Tamale that were contracted to supply free fuel to motorcycle riders. People were bused in to Tamale from all over the region. Refreshment of all types were provided free of charge to thousands of people. Ministers of State and government officials at all levels were there in official vehicles fueled by the taxpayers. The PPP is asking, “Who is paying for all this expenditure?” There are huge billboards of His Excellency John Mahama and former president Prof. Atta-Mills ostensibly put up to promote and give advantage to the candidacy of the former in the 2012 elections. Who is paying for these billboards? Is it at the expense of the tax payer? Will this ensure peace unity in Ghana when one party gets undue advantage for being in government? This is not the road to free and fair elections. Cheating does not only take place on the day of voting. This is how the process goes. A few days ago, we had the occasion to state that when state owned media provides extensive coverage to the NDC government’s programmes and activities and give unfair advantage to the party in power against other political parties, it presents a barrier to unity. We called for the correction of that anomaly to ensure peace and unity in the country. Unfortunately, President Mahama and his NDC party have decided to turn a deaf ear to all concerned and rather are enjoying this abuse of incumbency. We wish to remind President Mahama about the call made last week by the PPP’s Presidential Candidate Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom for transparency and accountability. Dr. Nduom set the agenda for the 2012 campaign with the strong commitment for incorruptible leadership and competency. For the benefit of President Mahama and the NDC, we reproduce the challenge thrown by Dr. Nduom: - Introduce amendments to the 1992 Constitution that will make three critical changes for progress in Ghana: 1) prohibit Members of Parliament from being appointed as Minsters of State, 2) return the power to the people for all Ghanaians to directly elect their district, municipal and metropolitan chief executives without any interference from the President and 3) strengthen the office of District Attorney by separating it from the Ministry of Justice; - Make available to the public asset declarations, income tax returns, health records and sources of campaign funding before the December 7th elections; and - Conduct a campaign to prove competence and ability to offer solutions to the nation’s numerous problems. We are awake! Kofi Asamoah-Siaw National Secretary, PPP 28 August 2012