Former Vice-President and a contestant as National Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential candidate, Professor Evans Atta Mills on Tuesday said he has no hatred towards the Statesman, an Accra newspaper for cartooning (pictured) and calling him a poodle.

He said "What the paper published has even strengthened my relationship with the media because, in democracy we must learn to be tolerant with opposing views." Professor Mills was interacting with Senior Journalists who are attending a two-day workshop and were brainstorming on the theme: Ten (10) years of constitutional rule, challenges facing the Ghanaian Media." Professor Mills was away from the country when the Statesman published the "poodle story" , which received condemnation from the NDC, the Ethics Committee of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the National Media Commission (NMC).

Prof. Mills said he is grateful to the GJA and the NMC for the role they played in protesting to the paper. He said, "their role depict the strengthening of constitutional institutions in place charged with the championing of democracy. He said "You see, I alone cannot build democracy, everybody has to defend our democracy. The NMC and the GJA did that and are doing more. "We must agree that we are all learning. During that process we would make mistakes but we must be ready to accept them and make amends and move forward."

He said the poodle story "is one of the occupational hazards that I have to accept as a politician. I am for peace. We all want it." "As a politician you must accommodate and tolerate the hazards. It is tolerance that makes democracy work." Pressed for his stand on the criticism of the abortive 1 billion dollar IFC loan, Prof. Mills said, "My concern is the payment of the sovereign guarantee. It is on the payment of the guarantee that would make the loan to be processed." He said, "if the guarantee was not paid why was the government so sure that the loan was coming and committed Parliament to approve of it."