The flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prof. John Evans Atta Mills has observed that Ghana is now in the grips of a multi-faceted crisis which has been brought about by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s hardship, incompetence, parochialism and systemic corruption.

“Our country is now in the grips of a multi-faceted crisis, which has been brought by hardship, incompetence, parochialism and systemic corruption”, said Prof. Mills last Saturday during the launch of the NDC’s manifesto at the Trade Fair in Accra.

According to the NDC flagbearer, the country was now moving in the wrong direction and it had no sense of direction as well.

Prof. John Evans Atta Mills also told the mammoth gathering that the NPP since it came to power had harassed and persecuted the NDC, citing the recent conviction of Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata’s as a clear evidence of persecution and harassment they suffer from the NPP. He said, “our nation now cannot, distinguish between what is right and what is wrong, our nation now has no sense of direction”.

The former Vice President under the NDC government told the cheering gathering, who urged him on, that since ex-President Rawlings handed over peacefully the mantle of governance to the NPP, there had been a gaping gap between the North and the South; inequality had increased and there had also been an increase in “social explosion”.

“Our country now is in distress but God is on our side”, Prof. Mills intimated.

He, therefore, pledged that should the NDC be given the mandate to rule the country after the December polls, it would reduce the current ministries and ministerial appointments.

He indicated that this country needed a government that was principled, a government that would make probity and accountability a priority.

On his part, the running mate of the flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, who also doubles as the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for Bole-Bamboi told the crowd that NDC’s manifesto was focused, achievable, realistic and people-based, unlike a manifesto that claimed to transform the country into a first class world.

He, however, teased the NPP with these words: “some people say they are moving forward forgetting that you can be moving forward in the wrong direction”.

He said that the NDC when voted into power would launch a major assault on poverty and attack it frontally, adding that the NDC would also respect international agreements.

To make their manifesto realistic and achievable as clamed, Mr. John Mahama stated that the NDC would establish an office of evaluation to prompt the government, whenever it swayed from its manifesto.

The Bole-Bamboi MP also intimated that the Serious Fraud office would be an independent investigative body under an NDC government.

He asked why infant mortality rate should be high if indeed this country was moving forward.