Hamile (U/W), Nov 29, GNA - The Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, on Friday advised Muslims against spending so much money on marriages and funerals at the expense of the education of their children.

He described education as which was the bedrock of development and said, "Islam teaches its believers to seek knowledge yet most of our Muslim brothers and sisters prefer to spend a chunk of their income on funerals and marriages instead of education for out children who are future leaders".

Vice President Aliu Mahama was addressing Muslims at Hamile after Friday prayers as part of activities marking his three-day official visit to the Upper West Region.

He said Muslims were embroiled conflicts all over the country mainly due to their inability to tolerate each other and called on them to close their ranks for development.

"There are so many Christian churches in these country with some of them even sharing blocks of worship and yet they do not fight among themselves like as we Muslims do''.

The Vice President said it was not true that the government would expel aliens from the country, saying, "this is not true and we shall never pursue that agenda".

He called on contractors working on government projects to keep to specifications to prevent political opponents from using such lapses against the government.

Alhaji Mahama said between June 2002 and October 2003 the government got about 1.1 trillion cedis as part of the HIPC benefits, which are being used for the construction of schools and health projects.

Mr Moses Dani Baah, Deputy Minister of Health, said 45 districts were involved in the National Health Insurance Programme while 45 more would join this year.

He expressed the hope that by the end of 2004 all districts would be participating in the programme.

The Deputy Minister of Health said concessions were being worked out under the programme to cater for paupers and the vulnerable.

Alhaji Mogtari Bamba, Deputy Minster for Presidential Affairs, said Ghana was receiving grants from the industrial countries chiefly because of the country's good governance, freedom of speech and peace record.

"Our popularity and good performance in the few years in government will return us into power, come 2004'' he concluded.