(The Statesman) -- The man adjudged by the latest opinion polls as the most popular contestant in the NPP flagbearership race, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says, with a strong blend of seriousness and hilarity, that he is the only one capable of making the NDC flagbearer, John Evans Atta Mills, lose appetite for both food and his wife Naadu after the December National Delegates Congress of the NPP.

Nana Akufo-Addo took the opportunity to tell Ghanaians that his government would never resort to witch-hunting, not even Jerry Rawlings would be witch-hunted. He noted that as very good friends and university mates at Legon Hall, University of Ghana, where the two of them played football together for good three years, Mills knows his calibre of person and therefore feels threatened by his election as the NPP flagbearer in the 2008 election.

According to Nana, after Prof Mills losing three times to President Kufour in previous elections, his endorsement as the NPP flagbearer will completely kill off the Law Professor's dream of ever becoming the President of the Republic. "Proffessor Mills who would automatically sit glued to his TV set during the congress would not like to hear Akufo-Addo win because I"m his biggest headache," Akufo-Addo stressed. Addressing party executives and polling station chairpersons from seven out of the twenty-two constituencies in the Western Region in Takoradi last Friday, the articulate and leading contestant reminded the delegates of making an unpardonable mistake by voting against him on the D-day.

He said the desperate NDC knows very well that its defeat in 2008 means the beginning of the end of the party and would therefore adopt all sorts of schemes to ensure victory at the polls. Nana Akufo-Addo intimated that current remarks by the leader and founder of the party, Jerry John Rawlings that the NDC will organise yet another fundraising activity outside the country to raise more funds in addition to the controversial $700,000 supposedly raised in Texas, must be seen as signs of the extend the opposition party is prepared to go to prepare adequately for the December 2008 polls.

The year 2008 election will not be an easy one and that it takes a courageous, fearless, mature, experienced, principled, level-headed and dynamic leader to meet the NDC boot for boot. "Just as Mills had over eighty percent of the total votes during his party?s congress, I also urge all delegates to our congress to endorse my candidature with a one-touch victory to enable me face Prof squarely," he said amidst loud cheers from the gathering.

Nana Addo said the NDC must be prevented at all cost from coming back to power after almost twenty years of misrule, adding that it would be a national travesty and tragedy for the NDC to be allowed back into office. He said the year 2008 election will be a unique one for the NPP mainly because of the change in leadership, a very sensitive issue which can pose serious problems for the party if not handled with the best of integrity and love for party. He urged those to be chosen as delegates to kick against the imposition of any candidate on them. He said such a move could adversely affect the party?s fortunes at the polls. He said the NPP?s victory depends to a very large extent on the quality of leader, the message to the good people of Ghana and above all effective organisational work at the grassroots level.

Nana Addo noted that his track record at the two Ministries he managed under President Kufour?s administration serve as ample evidence of his ability to effectively rule the nation when given the mandate. The RI opinion poll, done in June-July 2007 had both the public and party officers placing the Foreign Ministry then under Akufo-Addo as second only to Kwame Addo-Kufuor?s Defence Ministry in terms of performance.

Reacting to negative tags like 'arrogant? and ?temperamental? usually used by his detractors to defame him, Nana Akufo-Addo who described himself as a "simple, small man" wondered whether it was not the same detractors who saw him as an articulate, eloquent, bold and courageous man when able-bodied were badly needed years back to face up to the military regimes and bad governance. In any case, he said his government would among other things bridge the current yawning gap between government and party through self-financing projects at the constituency level. He promises an office at the Presidency to liaise on party matters.