Salaga (NR), June 3, GNA - Mr John Dramani Mahama, running mate to Professor John Evans Attah Mills, NDC flagbearer, said on Tuesday that his heart jumps anytime he saw female porters (Kayayee) in Accra doing menial jobs and with squalid conditions.

He said: "These (Kayayee) are my sisters and daughters from the Northern parts of Ghana who have migrated to Accra to eke-out a living because conditions are too appalling for them."

Speaking at separate meetings with chiefs and people of Salaga, Bimbilla and journalists in Tamale on Tuesday as part of his nine-day tour of the northern parts of the country, Mr Mahama said the NDC would reverse the situation through education and revamping of agriculture in the north.

He said the NDC would also ensure that the rice production in the area was effectively revived so that Ghana would regain her position as the leading rice producer in West Africa.

"During my infancy, when my father E.A. Mahama and others were producing rice through commercial farming, there was rice for almost every household to at least make a living," he said. He said, "Though there was migration from the North to the South, it had never been a on a large scale as we are witnessing with the Kayayee saga now."

Mr Mahama said with irrigation, the supply of fertilizers to farmers timely and ready credit facilities to farmers, the north would be open up to bridge the gap between it and the South. He said the development gap between the North and the South of the country was about 80 years and that education would be the most pragmatic measure to solve the problem.

He said' "It was not for anything that Dr. Kwame Nkrumah introduced the fee-free and compulsory education for the three Northern Regions, but it was sad to learn that schools in the north had not been re-opened because their feeding grants have not yet been released to them for a long time."

He said, "The NDC would not tolerate such a situation in Professor Mills' regime."

Mr Mahama appealed to chiefs and people of the area to submit to peaceful methods of settling disputes.

The Kpembewura, Alhaji Ibrahim Haruna Kibasibi I, Paramount Chief of the Kpembe Traditional Area urged Mr Mahama to use humility and diligence in his endeavours and that he (Mahama) and Professor Mills exude peace, which they must sustained.

He said the elections should be peaceful and whichever party won the elections must be acceptable to all to put Ghana a step further in its democratisation process for the world to acknowledge the nation's advancement.

He appealed to voters to cast their ballot peacefully on voting day and go home to listen to the results in the atmosphere of sincerity and maturity.

The Kpembewura said the North lagged behind in the development of the country and that nothing should be done to further deepen the woes of the area's underdevelopment when the NDC returns to power. 3 May 08